Systems and methods for oxygenating culture media in perfusion bioreactors

A cell culture system comprising:

• a cell culture vessel enclosing an interior configured to culture cells in liquid cell culture media, the cell culture vessel comprising a bioreactor inlet for supply of cell culture media to the interior and a bioreactor outlet for removal of cell culture media from the interior;
• and
• a media conditioning system comprising:
• a media conditioning vessel configured for conditioning liquid media;
• and
• an oxygenation column, the oxygenation column comprising an enclosure housing an interior space, an oxygen-depleted media inlet fluidly connected to the interior space, an excess gas vent fluidly connected to the interior space, and a lower opening fluidly connected to the interior space,
• wherein the lower opening is disposed at a lower end of the oxygenation column and in a fluid path between the interior space and the media conditioning vessel,
• wherein the oxygen-depleted media inlet is disposed at an upper end of the oxygenation column and in a fluid path to receive media from the interior of the bioreactor vessel,
• wherein the excess gas vent is disposed at the upper end of the oxygenation module, and
• wherein the oxygenation column is configured to mix the oxygen-depleted media with a gas comprising oxygen in a counterflow manner.