You have probably seen pictures of scientists using Petri dishes to grow microorganisms or have seen nurses in hospitals putting a patient’s blood in a bottle to see whether infection causing microorganisms are present in a patient’s bloodstream.

The substrate in the Petri dishes and the materials in the bottles is Cell Culture Media which is also referred to as Growth Media.  In essence, Cell Culture Media are building blocks for growing microorganisms.  Cell Culture Media is a mixture of many ingredients.  Based on the application or scientists objectives in trying to grow a particular strain of microorganisms, Cell Culture Media will have a combination of a carbon source, such as Glucose (sugar), various types of Nitrates or Salts, Amino Acids and many more ingredients.

Hosokawa is the premier leader in providing Powder Processing Systems for Cell Culture Media processing.  Most companies use three steps in processing/milling dry Cell Culture Media.  First, all the ingredients are pre-mixed using a Hosokawa Nauta Mixer , then the mixture is milled using a Pin Mill (Hosokawa UPZ  or UMP ) to the appropriate size (generally a d₉₀ between 75 to 250 microns) and finally the milled material is post-mixed in a Nauta Mixer to ensure a homogeneous mixture.

Most Cell Culture Media mixtures can be explosive in the right form and conditions. As such, most Hosokawa processing systems are designed to operate under a nitrogen gas blanket (inert).  For large systems with high gas flows, the consumption of nitrogen gas can be an expensive processing factor.  To reduce the cost of nitrogen gas, these large systems are designed with a Closed Loop Design, where the nitrogen gas is recirculated in the system (approx. >95%).  The Closed Loop Design will have regular and HEPA filters to keep the recirculating gas clean plus a heat exchanger to cool the gas.  Most companies try to keep the material processing temperatures below 80 °F.

System cleaning is another major factor in Cell Culture Media Processing. Systems generally employ a combination of Clean-In-Place (CIP)/Wet-In-Place (WIP) components.

Should you have any questions and would like to speak with our cell cultural media specialist, please do not hesitate to contact us.