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At the start of a production run or campaign, material is taken from the Working Cell Bank and thawed. These cells are slowly and carefully re-suspended and cultured in the laboratory until there is sufficient cell density to scale-up spinner flasks. These spinners are then transferred to an inoculum prep room in the production area, to prepare for large-scale fermentation operations. Inoculum prep rooms universally require controlled access, bio-safety hoods, incubators (supplied with CO2 if necessary), and adequate bench space for manual operations. The cell growth patterns are characterized and their volume is increased until enough material is available to inoculate a small production-scale bioreactor. Seed bioreactors can be 5% to 30% of their large-scale counterparts, and are usually purchased as a skid system with self-contained controls and hose connections for utilities. Depending upon the cell line, one or two seed reactors (with increasing volume) are necessary to grow the cells to sufficient density for production scale operations.
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