In biopharmaceutical manufacturing and cell culture, flasks are laboratory-scale vessels used for the cultivation of adherent or suspension cells under controlled conditions. Common types include T-flasks (for adherent cultures), Erlenmeyer flasks, and shake flasks (for suspension cultures), which provide a scalable starting point for process development before transfer to bioreactor systems. Flask-based culture is routinely used in cell line development, viral vector production, seed train expansion, and analytical method development.
