Constructing a Low Cost Instrumented Microbioreactor

目前可用的仪表式生物反应器价格昂贵，体积庞大，因此使得生物过程开发效率低下，因为根本无法同时进行大量实验。该项目的目标是构建一种低成本的仪表式微型生物反应器，并论证利用光学传感器技术构建小规模研究模块的可行性。这项拟议的工作旨在将微型生物反应器的规模扩大到在96孔微板平台上的250微升工作体积，以便可以同时进行和监测96次发酵。PI建议设计和建造这样一种设备，使之能够对大量发酵和细胞培养参数进行并行监测和分析。他们预计，以大约一个台式生物反应器的成本(2万美元)，他们将能够建造仪表化的微型生物反应器平台。预计这项拟议工作的影响将是巨大的。这一研究成果将消除生物工艺发展的一个主要瓶颈，并允许更快、更有效地优化发酵和细胞培养过程。

Currently available instrumented bioreactors are expensive and bulky, thus making bioprocess development inefficient, as large numbers of simultaneous experiments simply cannot be conducted. The project objectives are to construct a low-cost instrumented micro-bioreactor and to demonstrate the feasibility of constructing a small-scale research module using optical sensor technology. The proposed work aims to extend the micro-bioreactor scale down to 250 microliters working volume in a 96 well microplate platform so that 96 fermentations can be carried out and monitored simultaneously. The PI proposes to design and construct such a device that will enable parallel monitoring and analyses of large number of fermentation and cell culture parameters. They anticipate that at about the cost of a bench top bioreactor ($20,000) they will be able to construct the instrumented micro-bioreactor platform. It is anticipated that the impact of this proposed work would be significant. This research result will remove a major bottleneck in bioprocess development and allow for much speedier and efficient optimization of fermentation and cell culture processes.