Microbioreactors for nutrient-controlled microbial cultures: Bridging the gap between bioprocess development and industrial use

It is common practice in the development of bioprocesses to genetically modify a microorganism and study a large number of resulting mutants in order to select the ones that perform best for use at the industrial scale. At industrial scale, strict nutrient-controlled growth conditions are imposed to control the metabolic activity and growth...

Droplet microfluidics for bioprocess engineering

A crucial challenge during the initial stages of bioprocess development is that tools used to screen microorganisms and optimize cultivation conditions do not represent the environment imposed at industrial scale. Inside an industrial-scale bioreactor, microorganisms are often cultivated under fed-batch conditions, where nutrients are supplied...

Fed-Batch Droplet Nanobioreactor for Controlled Growth of Cyberlindnera (Pichia) jadinii: A Proof-Of-Concept Demonstration

A key bottleneck in bioprocess development is that state-of-the-art tools used for screening of cells and optimization of cultivation conditions do not represent the conditions enforced at industrial scale. At industrial scale, cell growth is strictly controlled (“fed-batch”) to optimize the metabolites produced by the cells. In contrast,...

Scalable microfluidic droplet on-demand generator for non-steady operation of droplet-based assays

We developed a microfluidic droplet on-demand (DoD) generator that enables the production of droplets with a volume solely governed by the geometry of the generator for a range of operating conditions. The prime reason to develop this novel type of DoD generator is that its robustness in operation enables scale out and operation under non...

Microcapsules with a permeable hydrogel shell and an aqueous core continuously produced in a 3D microdevice by all-aqueous microfluidics

We report the continuous production of microcapsules composed of an aqueous core and permeable hydrogel shell, made stable by the controlled photo-cross-linking of the shell of an all-aqueous double emulsion. While most previous work on water-based emulsions focused on active droplet formation, here double emulsion droplets were spontaneously...