iPSC & Pluripotent Stem Cells
Expand and differentiate hiPSCs at every scale, with aggregate size homogeneity preserved on one continuous platform from 0.1 L to 80 L.
hiPSCs can become any cell in the body, but meeting clinical demand means expanding them at scale without losing quality. Vertical-Wheel® mixing controls aggregate size, the critical quality attribute that governs downstream differentiation.
Homogeneous mixing prevents aggregate merging during expansion and medium exchange, keeping size distributions narrow for reproducible differentiation.
The same low-shear, low-EDR regime from 0.1 L to 80 L, characterized by CFD, so a process tuned small transfers up predictably.
Preserves pluripotency and enables uniform differentiation into islets, organoids and downstream lineages.
What You Can Build.
Workflows our customers and collaborators run on the Vertical-Wheel® platform, every one backed by published data or a protocol below.
- hiPSC / PSC expansion
- Aggregate culture
- Microcarrier culture
- Directed differentiation
- SC-islets
- Organoids
- High-density cell banking
hiPSC expansion scaled linearly across the full Vertical-Wheel® range while maintaining aggregate quality.
Systems for iPSCs.
The Evidence for iPSCs.
Application notes, protocols and peer-reviewed data with tangible results in Vertical-Wheel® bioreactors, leading with the studies that show real numbers.
This study combines CFD simulations with hPSC suspension culture experiments to investigate scale-up in Vertical-Wheel® bioreactors. The authors compare conventional Eulerian metrics, including volume-averaged shear stress and energy dissipation rate (EDR), with Lagrangian analysis of aggregate trajectories. Aggregate size, agitation rate, and bioreactor scale were shown to influence hydrodynamic exposure, while EDR correlated more strongly with aggregation efficiency, aggregate size, and cell expansion than shear stress. The findings highlight the value of tracking aggregate exposure histories to guide more representative scale-up and agitation strategies for hPSC manufacturing in Vertical-Wheel bioreactors.
This white paper examines the cost and operational advantages of scaling cell therapy manufacturing with Vertical-Wheel® bioreactors compared with planar culture and stirred-tank systems. It evaluates expansion efficiency, labor, facility footprint, process consistency, contamination risk, and cell quality. Published studies in hiPSCs and MSCs are used to assess yield, handling requirements, reproducibility, viability, phenotype, potency, and scale-up performance. A side-by-side cost comparison, including a 3 L PBS Biotech system, illustrates how Vertical-Wheel bioreactors can support a more streamlined and scalable manufacturing approach while recognizing that actual costs depend on the specific process.
This poster evaluates the MiniPRO, a scaled-down, computer-controlled Vertical-Wheel® bioreactor platform, for expansion of human induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs). Oxygen-controlled MiniPRO cultures were compared with non-controlled systems across conventional inoculation and direct-thaw workflows. Results showed consistent aggregate size distributions, preservation of pluripotency markers SOX2 and OCT4, and enhanced process control through dissolved oxygen regulation. Scale-up studies demonstrated comparable growth kinetics, metabolite profiles, and aggregate characteristics between MiniPRO and PBS-3L systems, supporting MiniPRO as a representative scale-down model for efficient process development and reduced scale-up risk in PSC manufacturing.
This protocol provides step-by-step guidance for transitioning pluripotent stem cells (PSCs) from 2D adherent culture to scalable 3D aggregate culture using the PBS-Mini Vertical-Wheel® bioreactor. It covers seed train preparation, inoculation, aggregate formation, expansion, media exchange, sampling, morphology assessment, cell counting, viability analysis, and harvest. Workflows are provided for both PBS-Mini 0.1 and 0.5 vessels, including aggregate dissociation in conical tubes or directly within the bioreactor. The protocol offers a practical starting point for developing, optimizing, and scaling robust PSC aggregate processes on the PBS Vertical-Wheel platform.
Ready to Scale Your iPSCs Process?
Talk to an application scientist about a Vertical-Wheel® path tuned to your cell type and timeline.