Rapid freezing of tissue samples

SP Scientific has launched the HistoChill - a new low temperature, mechanically refrigerated bath for the rapid freezing of tissue samples in Histology and Pathology Labs as well as other disciplines.

Operating down to -80°C, without the need for hazardous and costly expendable refrigerants, the compact tabletop HistoChill freezes tissues in just seconds increasing your lab throughput. Using a liquid medium, the HistoChill rapidly and thoroughly freezes samples minimizing ice crystal formation compared with the slow freezing rates encountered in a cryotome.

Frost build-up is minimized while introducing and extracting samples from the bath through integration of a warming loop on the upper outside wall of the refrigeration chamber. A hinged and insulated lid provides easy access to the bath.

The HistoChill is available in two configurations: the basic HistoChill for general freezing applications and the advanced model with built-in magnetic stirrer and temperature control for more demanding tissue specific or R&D applications. The advanced model includes digital set point and temperature indication.

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Fundamentals of freeze drying

SP Scientific, a leader in freeze drying technology, has announced a new four-part series of LyoLearn webinars during February 2011 designed to help participants better understand the basic theory and fundamentals of freeze drying.

Chaired by Dr Jeff Schwegmann, director of AB Biotechnologies - the scope of the first webinar, to be held on February 4th, will be to provide an introduction to freeze drying theory and the components of freeze drying, temperature and vacuum monitoring systems.

The second webinar, to be held on February 11th, will focus on the physical properties of different types of materials (eutectic melting, glass transition, collapse temperatures, etc.) and discuss applications of thermal characterisation techniques for solutions and solids.

To be held on February 18th, the third webinar will look at the latest freezing, annealing, primary and secondary drying techniques and the theory behind them. Reflecting the importance of freeze drying in the production environment the fourth webinar, to be held on February 25th, will discuss strategies for optimizing freeze drying scale-up, cycle transfer and maximising your throughput capability.

SP Scientific's programme of free educational webinars delivered by industry experts are devoted to freeze-drying topics, and follow a 30-minute format for the presentations with a Q&A session immediately afterwards.

Register here for the four session webinar 'Basic Theory of Freeze Drying'.

Controlled ice nucleation for freeze drying scale-up

SP Scientific, a leader in freeze drying technology, has announced a new LyoLearn webinar that will discuss the role of controlled ice nucleation in quality by design freeze drying scale-up procedures.

Chaired by Professor Michael J Pikal, Professor and Distinguished Chair, Pharmaceutical Technology at the University of Connecticut - the scope of the 27th January 2011 webinar will be to discuss controlled ice nucleation by both the ice-fog technique and the depressurization technique and to review the advantages of controlled ice nucleation.

To practice "Quality by Design", organizations must be able to scale up freeze drying results generated in the laboratory to full scale manufacturing. To do this a technique must address a number of heat and mass transfer scale up issues. The 27th January webinar will suggest methodology for estimating the changes to a laboratory procedure that are required.

In addition the webinar will address the scale-up challenge presented by the difference in ice nucleation temperatures between the laboratory and the Class 100 environment found in manufacturing. Much greater degrees of super-cooling are typically found in manufacturing, meaning manufacturing processes run longer and run hotter than in the laboratory. Operators may minimize the freezing difference between laboratory and manufacturing by annealing in the frozen state, but perhaps the best strategy is to control the ice nucleation temperature. In this webinar the author discusses controlled ice nucleation by both the ice-fog technique and the depressurization technique and reviews the advantages of controlled ice nucleation.

To register for the January 27, 2011 webinar, visit www.spscientific.com/LyoTech-Center/LyoLearn-Webinars.aspx

Methods for evaluating lyophilized product

SP Scientific, a world leader in freeze drying technology, has announced a new LyoLearn webinar that will discuss standard methods for evaluating lyophilized products.

The physical appearance of a lyophilized product can provide significant insight into the attributes of a product and relative effects of processing. Developing a detailed cake description during the development of a lyophilized product is important in order to discern subtle differences with regards to formulation variations, product designs, processing variables, and the impact of scale-up activities on product appearance. Cake descriptions also present an opportunity to compare physical characteristics, which can provide determination of vial to vial and batch to batch uniformity during the product development process.

Chaired by Wendy Sunderland (Lyophilization Technology) - the scope of the 15th December 2010 webinar will be to discuss how development of a standard method for evaluating lyophilized product in a laboratory setting requires uniformity in cake descriptions. Examples will be presented of how a thorough cake description including colour, macroscopic and microscopic structure, and texture of the lyophilized product is required by organisations looking to develop a reliable manufacturing inspection standard.

SP Scientific's program of free educational webinars delivered by industry experts are devoted to freeze-drying topics, and follow a 30-minute format for the presentations with a Q&A session immediately afterwards.

To register for the December 15, 2010 webinar please visit the SP Scientific website.

Video demonstrates benefits of controlled nucleation

SP Scientific has broadcast a new video that demonstrates how ControLyo Nucleation On-demand Technology can be used to control the nucleation of a product during freezing, such that the entire product nucleates at the same time and in the same way.

Using an example of freeze drying samples in vials the video (http://www.spscientific.com) illustrates how ControLyo Technology enables the freezing step to be much more repeatable and allows potentially greater control over cycle optimization.

License agreement for nucleation on-demand technology

SP Scientific has signed a license agreement with Praxair Inc to utilize Praxair's ControLyo nucleation on-demand technology, which provides pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies with precise control over the freeze-drying process for drug developmental efforts.

Praxair's breakthrough technology was developed to specifically control the freezing step of lyophilization, a method of drying pharmaceuticals whereby the material is frozen and then warmed in a vacuum so that the ice vaporizes.

Safe, easy and reliable cryopreservation

The Bio-Cool from SP Scientific is the only controlled rate freezer that does not require expendable liquid nitrogen and the associated pumping, re-filling, and storage challenges posed by a cryogenic liquid.

The Bio-Cool, simply plugs into a standard electrical outlet and quietly provides low temperature cooling to either -40ºC or -80ºC.

Unlike liquid nitrogen systems which surround samples with a cold vapour phase, the Bio-Cool immerses samples into a well-circulated, cold liquid bath.