atSpiro

14/09/2026

Shake-flask experiments can predict 5L bioreactor performance!
OXB has shown it is possible with the ShakeReactor™, in lentiviral vector process development.

What they found:
→ pH control at flask scale nearly doubled lentiviral vector titres in one media formulation
→ Insights generated in a shaking incubator translated reliably up to ambr®250 and 5 L stirred-tank bioreactors

For teams developing LVV or AAV processes, that’s the difference between guessing at scale-up and knowing before you commit reagents and time to a 5L run.

The result?
A ShakeReactor™-derived model predicted key 5L performance indicators, including biomass and lentiviral vector titer, with high accuracy.

OXB has documented the full experimental approach, results and modelling framework in a new whitepaper.

Link to the whitepaper: https://shorturl.at/jOAl3

08/07/2026

"I'm trying to move my bioreactor and it's a flipping pain."
We've heard this more than a few times. When teams move labs or set up their first bioreactor space, the hard part is rarely getting the bioreactors themselves. It's everything around them.

The real pain points usually are:
• Infrastructure is expensive
• Setup takes forever
• Labs need requalification

You can be ready to run experiments long before your lab is.
That's exactly where the ShakeReactor fits. It scales to conventional bioreactors, is easy to move, and easy to implement. Most scientists are up and running within a couple of hours of getting the equipment, because installing a fleet of ShakeReactors only requires 2 power plugs and a Shaking incubator.
However, traditional stirred tanks will always have their place. The trick is using them when they are actually the best tool.

…And yes, we're not fans of AI images either. We just couldn't find anyone willing to drill holes in their BSL-2 lab for a LinkedIn post.

Learn more at: https://shorturl.at/4JFoJ

23/04/2025

What could a flask-bioreactor do for your lab?

Find out for free by participating in our competition to win a 3-month rental to test the ShakeReactor.

The ShakeReactor is a smarter way to run shake flask cultures. It adds real-time data and automation in just 10 minutes - enabling fed-batch cultivation, automatic pH control, and continuous monitoring.

Additionally, 20 participants will receive a scientist figure made of LEGO® bricks and a mini ShakeReactor model.

For more details, visit: https://shorturl.at/aRrmM

Win a free ShakeReactor rental!

23/04/2025

𝗟𝗮𝗰𝗸 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗛 𝗰𝗼𝗻𝘁𝗿𝗼𝗹 𝗯𝗼𝘁𝘁𝗹𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗰𝗸𝘀 𝘆𝗼𝘂𝗿 𝗰𝗲𝗹𝗹 𝗲𝘅𝗽𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻.
In shake flask cultures pH control is often overlooked – but it matters.
Together with Uncommon Bio, we tested porcine iPSC expansion with and without automated pH regulation in a standard shake flask format.

📈 𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝘀𝘂𝗹𝘁: 55% increase in viable cell yield with pH control using the ShakeReactor.
🧪 Same medium, same conditions — the only change was automated pH maintenance (7.2–7.4).
📸 Side-by-side image: iPSC aggregates under 4x magnification:
𝗟𝗲𝗳𝘁: standard protocol without pH control
𝗥𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁: same protocol with automated pH control using the ShakeReactor

This approach doesn't just improve growth — it helps bridge the gap between R&D and scalable production, by allowing you to simulate production like bioreactor conditions earlier in R&D.

📥 Download the white paper to learn more: https://shorturl.at/oQt8a

23/04/2025

Scaling up? Oxygen transfer could be your biggest blind spot.

Shake flasks are a convenient tool for optimizing media, temperature, and pH. But when it’s time to scale up to bioreactors, things often don’t go as planned- leading to costly delays, unpredictable results, and wasted time.
Oxygen limitation is often to blame. Ensuring sufficient oxygenation starts with characterizing the oxygen mass transfer coefficient, kLa, for your conditions. Historically, it was difficult to measure in shake flasks due to the lack of dissolved oxygen monitoring. But new technology has changed that.
The ShakeReactor adds continuous monitoring of dissolved oxygen, making it simple to measure to characterize kLa in shake flasks.

📈 Curious about kLa values for standard conditions or want to learn how to characterize it in your setup?

📥Download the whitepaper: https://shorturl.at/HE7QX

23/04/2025

Why does flask screening fail?

If we’re not screening under the right conditions, a strain that looks promising in a shake flask might fail in a bioreactor—while high-performing candidates are left behind.

Identifying the key conditions to mimic during strain selection is crucial for finding clones that will perform in fed-batch production. A clear example is P. pastoris expressing recombinant protein under methanol induction (AOX1 promoter). Productivity is highly dependent on growth rate, typically peaking well below the maximum growth rate, μ_max.

Yet, most strain selection tools, shake flasks and microtiter plates, use batch cultivation with pulsed methanol. This leads to high, uncontrolled growth rates near μ_max, producing a very different ranking than what we’d observe in fed-batch conditions, where growth rates are carefully controlled.

The ShakeReactor enables screening under production-mimicking conditions, with pH control and controlled feeding, allowing a single person to screen up to 24 clones at a time.

The result? Confidently select clones that will thrive in production.

26/02/2025

𝐒𝐭𝐫𝐮𝐠𝐠𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐥𝐨𝐰 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝𝐬? Low titers are all too common in recombinant protein expression. The typical workhorse - the trusty shake flask - excels at many things, but providing an optimal environment for protein expression is not one of them. This quickly leads to running multiple shake flasks to get the required culture volume to produce enough of difficult-to-express proteins.

Ideally, recombinant expressions should be performed in the controlled environment of a bioreactor, but when you need to produce multiple different proteins desktop bioreactors quickly become too cumbersome and expensive to run.

The ShakeReactor combines the ease of use of the shake flask with the controlled environment and automation of a desktop bioreactor. With the 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫, you can achieve up to 𝟖𝟓𝟕% 𝐡𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐲𝐢𝐞𝐥𝐝 compared to flasks.

✅ 𝟖𝐱 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐞𝐢𝐧 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐯𝐢𝐭𝐲
✅ 𝐑𝐞𝐩𝐥𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝟖 𝐅𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐤𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐚 𝐒𝐡𝐚𝐤𝐞𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐨𝐫
✅ 𝐋𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐯𝐨𝐥𝐮𝐦𝐞, 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭 - 𝐧𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐧𝐮𝐚𝐥 𝐢𝐧𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐨𝐫 𝐟𝐞𝐞𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠

Want to see the data? Check out our two case studies on recombinant protein production in E. coli using the ShakeReactor: https://atspiro.com/case-ecoli

26/02/2025

🚨 Bioreactors Fully Booked—Again? 🚨
You're ready to run experiments, but the equipment is occupied. The backlog is growing, deadlines are slipping, and getting more bioreactors isn’t an option. Sound familiar?

💡 Double your bioreactor capacity—without taking up more lab space.
ShakeReactor upgrades your existing shake flask setup, transforming flasks into bioreactors. No permanent footprint, no excessive costs—just a smarter way to run cultures in parallel with continuous monitoring and automated control.

🐹/🦠More experiments. Less waiting.
We believe that the equipment should be ready when the scientists are, not the other way around. That's why we developed the ShakeReactor. Connect to learn how it can increase capacity in your cell cultivation or fermentation laboratory.

15/08/2024

Why spend hours setting up a traditional bench-top bioreactor when you can transform your flask into one in just 10 minutes?

The ShakeReactor is designed with user experience in mind, making it easy to operate and quick to set up. It has programmable pumps, online monitoring and control capabilities, all managed with intuitive software that anyone can use.

Ready to optimize your lab's workflow? Visit atspiro.com to request whitepapers, book a meeting, or learn more.

15/08/2024

We don’t like to brag but look at the wide range of organisms our customers have successfully cultured in the ShakeReactor!

The ShakeReactor is an easy and versatile bioreactor designed to streamline lab-scale cultivations, whether you're working with bacteria, yeast, fungi, algae or mammalian cells. By adding DO and pH measurement and automated feeding – controlled by a user friendly software, the ShakeReactor delivers enhanced control and better performance compared to flask cultivations.

Ready to optimize your lab's workflow? Contact us at atSpiro.com to learn more about how the ShakeReactor can enhance your research!

Credits to picture: https://t.ly/p72ha