Model‐based control system design to manage process parameters in mammalian cell culture for biopharmaceutical manufacturing

Abstract To enhance the robustness and flexibility of biopharmaceutical manufacturing, a paradigm shift toward methods of continuous processing, such as perfusion, and fundamental technologies for high‐throughput process development are being actively investigated. The continuous upstream process must establish an advanced control strategy to ensure a “State of Control” before operation. Specifically, feedforward and feedback control must address the complex fluctuations that occur during the culture process and maintain critical process parameters in appropriate states. However, control system design for industry‐standard mammalian cell culture processes is still often performed in a laborious trial‐and‐error manner. This paper provides a novel control approach in which controller specifications to obtain desired control characteristics can be determined systematically by combining a culture model with control theory. In the proposed scheme, control conditions, such as PID parameters, can be specified mechanistically based on process understanding and control requirements without qualitative decision making or specific preliminary experiments. The effectiveness of the model‐based control algorithm was verified by control simulations assuming perfusion Chinese hamster ovary culture. As a tool to assist in the development of control strategies, this study will reduce the high operational workload that is a serious problem in continuous culture and facilitate the digitalization of bioprocesses.