Patent ID: 8192981

Claim:
A bioreactor system for the production of tissue prostheses, the system comprising: a bioreactor having an input port and an output port, a culture medium reservoir having an input port and an output port, a first conduit coupled between said bioreactor input port and said culture medium reservoir output port, a second conduit coupled between said bioreactor output port and said culture medium reservoir input port, a pump operable to pump fluid into and draw fluid out of a pumping chamber defined in said bioreactor to generate a pulsatile flow of culture medium through said culture medium reservoir and bioreactor via said first and second conduits, one or more flow meters operable to generate flow rate signals representative of the rate of culture medium flow through one or both of said first and second conduits, a controller arranged to receive said flow rate signals from said one or more flow meters and to control a pump in response to said received flow rate signals to provide a desired rate of culture medium flow, wherein said bioreactor comprises a plurality of shaped components which when assembled together define: said pumping chamber, wherein said pumping chamber is split by a movable resilient membrane into a culture medium pumping chamber and a pumping fluid chamber; and wherein said pumping chamber is defined by a hollow base component and a hollow middle component, said culture medium reservoir, wherein said culture medium reservoir is defined by a hollow top component mounted on a wall of said hollow middle component, a prosthesis mounting chamber, wherein said culture medium pumping chamber is in fluid communication with said culture medium reservoir and said prosthesis mounting chamber, and said prosthesis mounting chamber is in fluid communication with said culture medium pumping chamber and said culture medium reservoir, said bioreactor further comprising: a first non-return valve provided in said wall of said hollow middle component for limiting circulation of culture medium within said bioreactor to a flow from said culture medium reservoir to said pumping chamber, and a second non-return valve for limiting circulation of culture medium within said bioreactor to a flow from said pumping chamber to said culture medium reservoir via the prosthesis mounting chamber, wherein said prosthesis mounting chamber is located within said culture medium reservoir.