Development of a scaled-down aerobic fermentation model for scale-up in recombinant protein vaccine manufacturing

► Inconsistencies in scale-up fermentation of biological products are demonstrated. ► Inconsistencies are attributed to different oxygen mass transfer coefficients (kLa). ► A method to “tune” the kLa to the same value at each fermentation scale is shown. ► Consistent fermentation performance at all scales results from kLa tuning. ► An empirical correlation for kLa is used as a tool to extrapolate to larger scales.