Maximising the Efficiency of Tomorrow?s Bioprocess Production

Until 2015 the partners in the joint project AutoBio, bringing together expertise in biotechnology, process and electrical engineering and information sciences, will work on new methods and strategies to shorten development times in biotechnological production. Funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research the project is part of the "Research for Tomorrow?s Production" framework concept. Two academic partners from the Technical University Berlin and five medium-sized enterprises are taking part in this project. DOTR will contribute with new sensor technology allowing for automated control of process conditions already in early development stages.

Many important products like pharmaceuticals, biocatalysts, basic or special chemicals are produced in bioprocesses. These processes are sustainable and very resource-efficient, and the number of products produced in the biotechnology sector will further increase throughout the next decades. However, development of biotechnological production processes can take 5 to 8 years. Aim of the project partners is to find new strategies and methods to develop products based on bioprocesses more efficiently by shortening the development times. This will also reduce the relatively high investment risks and costs.

Manual strategies in experimental development will be automated and transferred to robotic platforms combined with methods based on the statistic "Design of Experiment". Furthermore, the implementation of fed-batch strategies, and analysis of process relevant parameters in early stages of the product development will be a major objective. In the beginning bioprocess development is dominated by the natural sciences and issues in engineering usually are dealt with in later stages of the process. This often leads to delays and problems with process design later on. Partners in the AutoBio project try to find new methods with an interdisciplinary approach right from the start.

DOTR is designing and developing new oxygen sensors for at-line oxygen control, and pH sensors optimized for microbial cultivation. These sensors will be integrated in microtiter plates and be compatible with comercially available fluorescence readers to ensure a maximum of user-friendliness, and a fast introduction in the market. The non-invasive parameter control with chemical optical sensors does not influence cultivations, which is a huge advantage in process development. Within the project the sensors can be designed in cooperation not only with the users, but also togehter with the engineers of the robotics and software developers. This way, specifications of the technical development can be tested under realistic conditions right  from the start. A combination of lab robots, cell culture systems and modern analysis toos will generate initial data that can be used to develop statistical models, based on which a decision can be made whether a production process will be further developed. In the next stage process parameters in a small bioreactor system will be tested. This will allow simulating industrial conditions in a lab-scale model and testing the robustness of cultures under optimized conditions.

New, innovative products shall be available shortly after the end of the AutoBio project. Automated solutions for robotics manufacturers and end users, as well as new measurement techniques for important process parameters will increase efficiency and shorten process development times considerably.

Contact:

Christina Schlauderer
Communications
DOTR
Phone: +49 941 94 27 21 09
E-Mail: christina.schlauderer@dissolvedoxygentransmitter.com