Teresa Duarte - VectorB2B
Jonathan Kotula - Felix Biotechnology
Rodrigo García González - Instituto de Biología, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso
Manuel Garrido - TechnoPhage





Amplification of bacteriophages at a lab scale is successfully delivered by labs throughout the world. However, when the phage needs to be used at an industrial scale, a flask culture quickly becomes a process bottleneck. Among the most common issues are flask-to-flask reproducibility, incubator space, number of available flasks and cleaning. Up-scaling by increasing the number of flasks per culture quickly stops being an attractive option and alternative solutions must be found. There are many types of fermenters allowing upscale, each with its own benefits but also challenges in process adaptation. Also not each phage and each host strain are equal and biotechnologists need to consider the biological requirements of a large volume process as well as the biophysical and technological ones. At this roundtable we invite discussion on the challenges, solutions and experiences gained by academics, developed bioindustry and those just beginning their start-up journey alike. We will discuss upscaling of phage production for both medical and agrotechnical use and the audience is invited to take an active part in the discussion.