ESR 9 - Bioengineering at the micro-scale: Enhanced mixing on small scales and cultivation in microfluidic screening bioreactors

Host: TUB; Supervisor:Prof. Dr. Rainer Krull

The overall objective of the TUB PhD is the development and test of several MBR systems equipped with advanced sensor technology for comparative screening of different biocatalytic reactions developed in work package 6 – 8. The ESR will be involved in the design phase of the modular MBR systems concept developed in WP6. After successful development the ESR will test the MBRs with different biological systems in WP 7 and WP 8. Initial limitations of the MBR systems have to be overcome effectively by supporting techniques such as CFD simulation, validation techniques like μPIV and CLSM.

Tasks and methodology
  • ESR of TUB will emphasises the investigations on the comparative screening of different biocatalytic reactions with entrapped enzymes (at reactor wall and/or with carrier fixed and fluidized enzymes) in a parallelized MBR in different process modes (batch and/or continuous) for the rapid evaluation of kinetic parameters of single enzyme variants.
  • Mass transfer and homogenization performance as well as the on-line monitoring of dissolved oxygen and/or    optical density are in the focus of the investigations.
  • Homogenization characteristics can be simulated by the use of the sophisticated CFD tools. The validation can be performed with µPIV and/or CLSM.
  • TUB will also give support in testing of MBRs with integrated sensors in cultivation and biocatalysis also with nano- and magnetic nano-sensor particles (WP6) for the processing of several high value product cultivations and biocatalysis (WP7).
Results
  • Comparison of standardized high-throughput process development, online monitoring and parallelisation
  • Microbioreactors with integrated optical sensors and IR probes for the application in biocatalytic screening toolbox (WP6) and biocatalysis (WP7)
  • CFD/µPIV/CLSM experimental data, validation and primary modelling for cell-surface-particle interactions in MBR
  • In depth analysis of experimental uncertainty, sensitivity and variability at the micro-scale completed
  • Microbioreactors with integrated sensors tested in cultivation and biocatalysis
  • Nano-sensor particles tested in cultivation (WP6)  and biocatalysis (WP7)
  • Magnetic nano-sensor particles tested in cultivation (WP6) and biocatalysis (WP7)         
Updated by Nicky Ehrlich on 15 September 2014
Updated by Nicky Ehrlich on 15 September 2014