Phoenix: A Portable, Battery-Powered, and Environmentally Controlled Platform for Long-Distance Transportation of Live-Cell Cultures

Abstract

Despite the advent of advanced therapy medicinal products (ATMPs) in regenerative medicine, gene therapy, cell therapies, tissue engineering, and immunotherapy, the availability of treatment is limited to patients close to state-of-the-art facilities. The SCORPIO-V Division of HNu Photonics has developed the Phoenix-Live Cell Transport TM , a battery-operated mobile incubator designed to facilitate long-distance transportation of living cell cultures from GMP facilities to remote areas for increased patient accessibility to ATMPs. This work demonstrates that Phoenix TM (patent pending) is a superior mechanism for transporting living cells compared to the standard method of shipping frozen cells on dry ice (−80°C) or in liquid nitrogen (−150°C), which are destructive to the biology as well as a time consuming process. Thus, Phoenix will address a significant market need within the burgeoning ATMP industry. SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells were cultured in a stationary Phoenix for up to 5 days to assess cell viability and proliferation. The results show there is no significant difference in cell proliferation (∼5X growth on day 5) or viability (>90% viability on all days) when cultured in Phoenix TM and compared to a standard 5% CO 2 incubator. Similarly, SH-SY5Y cells were evaluated following ground (1–3 days) and air (30 min) shipments to understand the impact of transit vibrations on the cell cultures. The results indicate that there is no significant difference in SH-SY5Y cell proliferation (∼2X growth on day 3) or viability (>90% viability for all samples) when the cells are subjected to the vibrations of ground and air transportation when compared to control samples in a standard, stationary 5% CO 2 incubator. Furthermore, the temperature, pressure, humidity, and accelerometer sensors log data during culture shipment to ensure that the sensitive ATMPs are handled with the appropriate care during transportation. The Phoenix TM technology innovation will significantly increase the accessibility, reproducibility, and quality-controlled transport of living ATMPs to benefit the widespread commercialization of ATMPs globally. These results demonstrate that Phoenix TM can transport sensitive cell lines with the same care as traditional culture techniques in a stationary CO 2 incubator with higher yield, less time and labor, and greater quality control than frozen samples.

PrintrLab incubator: A portable and low-cost CO2 incubator based on an open-source 3D printer architecture

“…Our measurements indicated that 50 mL of CO 2 is produced per minute from the sublimation of dry ice inside a thermos, as measured by a bubble flow meter (Optiflow 520 Digital Volumetric Flowmeter). The ability of the PrintrLab incubator to grow and possibly transport a large volume of flasks/plates with temperature control also makes it a viable option for the transport of cell therapies products over other commercially portable incubators [ 3 ]. Although storing dry ice in a capped thermos is not recommended for safety reasons, we have a simple and low-cost method to provide a lid and venting mechanism to prevent excessive pressure buildup.…”

“…Recently, our lab required a CO 2 incubator for use in a near-patient setting away from laboratories. Although others have also reported building a low-cost incubator with a supply of CO 2 [ 2 , 3 ], we developed our own solution for a small, portable, and low-cost incubator to better fill this need. Because CO 2 incubators are a vital resource to researchers in biomedical sciences, regardless of funding or equipment access, the information we present herein about our development will be useful to others.…”

An Inexpensive Incubator for Mammalian Cell Culture Capable of Regulating O2, CO2, and Temperature

“…It weighs approximately one kilogram and as such is also highly portable within the lab. Certainly, it is not as portable as the CO 2 -alone incubators developed by Willbrand et al [13] or Arumagam et al [14]. These researchers focused on developing cell incubation systems suitable for fieldwork and/or shipping live cells.…”

“…It is capable of maintaining pre-set O 2 , CO 2 and temperature values within the physiological ranges for most mammalian cells. Although other "lab-assembled" O 2 monitoring systems [11], imaging systems [12], and cell culture incubators [13,14] exist, we are unaware of any that simultaneously regulate O 2 and CO 2 to enable experiments to be conducted at physiological O 2 levels. Thus, our incubator represents the least expensive solution to the important issue of maintaining physioxia in cell culture that is currently available.…”

A modular and flexible open source cell incubator system for mobile and stationary use

“…Such approaches, however, still require external power and are not easily adaptable to constraints imposed on the incubation system by experiments. A portable battery-powered incubator exists [24], however, since it is a commercial solution and hence not open-source, it lacks flexibility.…”