Measuring pH in bioreactors/cell culture with disposable low cost sensors/pH sensors
At ZP we know the future for bioreactors and cell culture is continuous online monitoring of pH, glucose, lactate, oxygen etc. We understand that these next generation sensors will not be the traditional 1930s glass barreled sensors, which are fragile, expensive and require frequent calibration, rather it will be low cost solid state sensors.
At ZP we receive a lot of enquiries as to whether our electrodes can be used in bioreactor and cell culture applications, so we have put together this note to answer that question.
In the adjacent image we show one of our solid state pH sensors lysogeny broth (LB) for 24-48 hours inoculated with E.Coli. DH5a. Clearly over the culture time the E Coli population has increased; throughout the reaction ZP had one of its disposable/semi-disposable electrodes in-situ.
For the first 24 hours the biologist ran the culture at room temperature, but it was unsurprisingly apparent that the E. Coli. was not 'growing', therefore for the next 24 hours the culture temperature was raised to 37 degC. Upon the increase in temperature the pH sensor responded as the cell population underwent growth.
In the adjacent image the biologist has taken some SEM images of the pH sensors before and after the culture.
At ZP we see our solid state pH sensors as part of the future in continuous monitoring in a host of cell culture and bioreactor applications, If you have any questions of ZP please don't hesitate to contact us.