908 Devices, a pioneer of analytical devices for chemical and biomolecular analysis, announced their Rebel™ system, the first at-line fresh and spent cell media analyzer for bioprocess labs, received an Analytical Scientist Innovation Award as one of the top transformational technologies to land in laboratories in 2019.

Cell media composition is critical for maximizing cell line productivity and biotherapeutic quality, which means media optimization is a coordinated effort between cell culture, media preparation, and upstream process development teams. Because these groups have limited access to analytical tools, they rely on third-party and core labs to analyze media samples which can take days or even weeks to turn results around. The Rebel eliminates this delay. Operating alongside bioreactors, scientists can run media analysis at-line, anytime to accelerate process development cycles and maximize their bioreactor utilization.

In just six months since its commercial release, the Rebel is seeing strong adoption by biopharma and industrial biotech companies worldwide. The system is now supporting novel cell and gene therapy research, biologics process development and industrial biotech in the US, Europe, and Asia.

“The feedback is overwhelmingly positive. When customers see the Rebel in action, they’re just blown away by its simplicity,” said Glenn Harris, Director of Integrated Life Sciences Platforms at 908 Devices. “We know of process development labs who were struggling to keep up with the hundreds of media samples generated weekly. The Rebel’s high-throughput analysis is giving them the data they need to make decisions in minutes instead of waiting weeks for it. One customer likened operating the Rebel to the auto-drive function of a Tesla – that’s pretty high praise in our book.”