Micro-scale processing and characterization of biopolymers

在许多不同的行业中，将生物聚合物用作功能材料引起了极大的兴趣。例如，聚羟基烷酸酯(PHAs)是由细菌产生的天然聚酯分子，具有与传统合成聚合物(如聚丙烯)类似的材料性能，但具有完全可生物降解的优势。核酸适配子是一种功能性分子，可在临床健康试验中用作生物标志物，以监测不同治疗策略的有效性。然而，与生物聚合物的生产相关的一些工程和经济挑战限制了其更广泛的使用。例如，由于生产成本较高，PHA无法与合成聚合物竞争。其中很大一部分成本与分离和提纯聚合物的“下游加工”步骤有关。因此，拟议研究的目标是通过开发比现有技术更便宜、更好的新生物工艺来解决与生物聚合物纯化相关的实际问题。*微规模处理技术使用模拟实验室规模设备的微型设备。因为它们可以被自动化和多路传输以实现高通量筛选，它们被视为加速生物过程开发的有力方法。由于先进的监管预期和日益严格的成本审查，生物技术行业正在迅速采用这些高通量工具。这项工作将集中在两个具体的研究领域。第一个是为筛选微生物产生的生物聚合物而开发的微型过滤工艺。第二个是开发基于整体柱的毛细管柱，用于发现核酸适配子。将在这项工作中开发的微型加工技术将具有巨大的商业潜力，并可能成为与加拿大公司建立新的创业企业的基础。

There is significant interest in using biopolymers as functional materials in many different industries. For example, polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are naturally occurring polyester molecules produced by bacteria that have comparable material properties to conventional synthetic polymers such as polypropylene but have the advantage of being fully biodegradable. Nucleic acid aptamers are functional molecules that can be used as biomarkers in clinical health trials to monitor the effectiveness of different treatment strategies. However, there are a number of engineering and economic challenges associated with the production of biopolymers that have limited their more widespread use. For example, due to the higher production costs, PHAs cannot compete with synthetic polymers. A significant portion of that cost is related to the 'downstream processing' steps that are designed to isolate and purify the polymer. Thus, the objective of the proposed research is to address the practical problems associated with biopolymer purification by developing new bioprocesses that are cheaper and better than current technologies. ****Microscale processing techniques use miniaturized devices that mimic lab-scale equipment. Because they can be automated and multiplexed to enable high-throughput screening, they are viewed as a powerful method to accelerate bioprocess development. Due to advanced regulatory expectations and increasing cost scrutiny, the biotechnology industry is rapidly adopting the use of these high-throughput tools. This work will focus on two specific research areas. The first is the development of microscale filtration processes for screening microbially produced biopolymers. The second is the development of monolith-based capillary columns for the discovery of nucleic acid aptamers. The microscale processing techniques that will be developed in this work will have significant commercial potential and may form the basis for new entrepreneurial ventures with Canadian companies.