Project Details
Projekt
Parallel bioreactor system
Subject Area
Microbiology, Virology and Immunology
Term
Funded in 2021
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 491062903
The parallel cultivation of microorganisms under reproducible and controllable conditions is an essential component for the characterization of microorganisms. In my working group we deal with the optimization of processes and strains for the production of biobased materials and chemicals. The focus is mainly on bio-based and biodegradable polysaccharides, for which we use in vivo engineering. By this approach, we create many different strain variants, which we examine for their product formation under reproducible and controllable conditions. Due to the modified chemical structures of the new exopolysaccharide variants, there are also strong differences in productivity. Due to the highly energy- and thus oxygen-dependent biosynthesis of the polysaccharides, many of these variants can only be produced under optimal conditions in bioreactors. In the following, we characterize the basic structure-functional relationships of these new polysaccharide variants, and thus derive approaches for new functionalities. In further steps, the strain-specific optimization of the biosynthesis pathways is carried out in order to increase productivity. The portfolio of strains used includes Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria, but also filamentous fungi and microalgae. For microalgae, cultivation in photobioreactors under reproducible conditions is essential, with the possibility of targeted illumination with different wavelengths, in order to analyze the influence of light intensity and wavelength on growth and product formation. In addition to research on microbial polysaccharides, we are recently working on the development of strains which utilize C1 compounds, which can be produced from e.g. synthesis gas. For this purpose, we use e.g. Bacillus methanolicus, which was previously considered to be very difficult to genetic accessibility. Based on molecular biology tools (CRISPR-Cas) developed by us, however, efficient processing now seems to be successfully feasible. For the cultivation of B. methanolicus stable temperatures of 50 °C are necessary, without evaporation from the cultivation vessels, which massively disturbs the accounting of the products and material flows.The requested parallel bioreactor system meets all these requirements and offers with a gas mixing station, exhaust gas analysis, stable temperature control and the possibility of using light rods a device that can serve all necessary parallel cultivation experiments in our working group.
DFG Programme
Major Research Instrumentation
Major Instrumentation
Paralleles Bioreaktorsystem
Instrumentation Group
3520 Bakterien-Zuchtgeräte, Fermenter
Applicant Institution
Universität Münster
