Over the past five years, the immense financial pressure on the development and manufacturing of biopharmaceuticals has resulted in the increasing use and acce- ance of disposables, which are discarded after harvest and therefore intended only for single use. In fact, such disposables are implemented in all the main bioprocess production stages today and an even higher growth than those in the biopharmac- tical market is predicted (reaching double figures). Alongside disposable filter capsules, membrane chromatography units, tubing, connectors, flexible containers processing or containing fluids, freezer systems, mixers and pumps, and fully c- trolled disposable bioreactors of up to 2,000 L culture volume are already available on the market. Numerous studies highlight the advantages of disposable bioreactors and reveal their potential for simple, safe and fast seed inoculum production, process devel- ment and small as well as middle volume production (e.g. bioactive substances, viruses for vaccines and gene therapies etc.). They suggest that such disposable bioreactors (typically characterized by the cultivation chamber or bag from plastic materials) may be advantageous for plant, animal and microbial cells. Running industrial activities such as CFD-modelling, development of single-use process monitoring and control technology, and standardized film formulations are attempting to resolve the limitations of the current disposable bioreactors. These achievements, along with substantial improvements in product yield, will reduce the use of stainless steel in the biomanufacturing facilities of the future.

René Brecht: Disposable Bioreactors: Maturation into Pharmaceutical Glycoprotein Manufacturing.- Xiaowei Zhang, Matthieu Stettler, Dario De Sanctis, Marco Perrone,Nicola Parolini, Marco Discacciati, Maria De Jesus, David Hacker,Alfio Quarteroni, and Florian Wurm: Use of Orbital Shaken Disposable Bioreactors for Mammalian Cell Cultures from the Milliliter-Scale to the 1,000-Liter Scale.- Regine Eibl, Sören Werner, and Dieter Eibl: Bag Bioreactor Based on Wave-Induced Motion: Characteristics and Applications.- Regine Eibl and Dieter Eibl: Application of Disposable Bag-Bioreactors in Tissue Engineering and for the Production of Therapeutic Agents.- Jean-Paul Ducos , Bénédicte Terrier, and Didier Courtois : Disposable Bioreactors for Plant Micropropagation and Mass Plant Cell Culture.- Gerardo Catapano, John F. Patzer II, and Jörg Christian Gerlach : Transport Advances in Disposable Bioreactors for Liver Tissue Engineering.- Anne Glindkamp, Daniel Riechers, Christoph Rehbock, Bernd Hitzmann,Thomas Scheper, and Kenneth F. Reardon: Sensors in Disposable Bioreactors Status and Trends.- Uwe Gottschalk: Disposables in Downstream Processing.- Aline Ravisé, Emmanuelle Cameau, Georges De Abreu, and Alain Pralong: Hybrid and Disposable Facilities for Manufacturing of Biopharmaceuticals: Pros and Cons.