NASA SBIR 00-II Solicitation

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (LIMIT 200 WORDS)
The cultivation of cells in horizontally rotating vessels under low shear stress has become extremely popular in recent years, and its non-rotating counterpart, low-gravity cell culture in space flight is also gaining popularity. Very significant effects of diminished inertial acceleration on cultured cells have been reported but with rather disappointing substantiation by repetition or physical explanations. The proposed innovation, "Dynacult" will provide the necessary facilities for multiple cell bioreactor experiments on orbit on the International Space Station and for multiple, independently controlled bioreactor experiments in laboratories. The proposed research will lead to a completely sealed, completely externally controlled bioreactor system consisting of a 50 mL (or less) reactor vessel with options for rotation, perfusion and oxygenation, fresh medium reservoir and spent medium waste, up to 6 automatic sample collections of cells or cell-free reactor medium at user-specified times, robust in-line sensors of oxygen and pH, and a video microscope for observing or counting cells in an external sampling loop. The deliverables at the end of this Phase II research project are a final report summarizing the research, a description of a flight-worthy Dynacult unit, and a ground-based prototype for laboratory operation, including the cultivation of a test mammalian cell line.

POTENTIAL COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS
The commercial product anticipated from this proposed research program is innovative cell culturing and transplantable tissue growth equipment. The primary product is the complete teleoperated, perfused cell culture system, which has applications in both terrestrial and space laboratories. Secondary products include the ancillary subsystems of our innovative cell culturing system. These include the video cell culturing subsystem (which will automate cell counting at any time), sampling system that captures supernatant medium or cells for subculturing or fixation, miniature in-line sensors for monitoring and controlling the pH and oxygen concentrations of the culture, and telescience capability for monitoring and control. The commercial venture for SHOT is the manufacture and marketing of the cell culturing system and subsystems. Our DYNACULT cell culturing system has unique advantages over competing technology, which provides the potential for introducing it outright in the ground-based commercial market. The innovative nature of the subsystems, such as miniature sensors and automated sampling, provides an even greater opportunity for our commercial venture, since they can be marketed through other cell culturing suppliers if we chose not to compete with them. There is currently no equipment on the market that does exactly what the DYNACULT unit can do.

NAME AND ADDRESS OF PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR (Name, Organization Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)
Dr. Paul Todd
Space Hardware Optimization Technology
7200 Highway 150
Greenville , IN   47124 - 9515

NAME AND ADDRESS OF OFFEROR (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip)
Space Hardware Optimization Technology
7200 Highway 150
Greenville , IN   47124 - 9515