Course syllabus for Industrial biotechnology

The aims of the course are that the students should

• gain a quantitative understanding of different types of bioreactors and cultivation technologies
• obtain knowledge concerning the different demands on cultivation conditions and process control dictated by the metabolic and physiological characteristics of various cell systems such as bacteria, yeast, filamentous fungi as well as higher eukaryotes.
• obtain knowledge of industrial applications of such cell factories
• develop engineering competences like working with models, working with complex, open-ended problems, and communicating scientific problems in written and oral form within given time frames.

• Describe how renewable raw materials can be used for production of fine and bulk chemicals using industrial biotechnology.
• Design common microbial cultivation techniques such as batch-, fed-batch and chemostat cultures.
• Make quantitative descriptions of growth and metabolic behaviour in industrial-like cultivation systems using biochemically structured mathematical models and simulation in Matlab
• Design strategies for development of microbial cell factories suitable for industrial applications, also considering the extra demands put on cell factories when using renewable lignocellulosic raw materials.
• Choose suitable cultivation techniques and cell systems for various manufacturing and research purposes and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of alternative  cultivation techniques and cell systems
• Design metabolically based control strategies for cultivation of different cell systems such as bacteria, yeast, filamentous fungi and higher eukaryotic cells.
• Formulate and communicate a proposal for a biotechnological research or development project, including choice of model organism, cultivation techniques, and analytical techniques.
• Describe some important industrial applications of microbiology.

• Bioreactor design
• Cultivation principles, modes of operation
• Oxygen transfer
• Monitoring and control strategies for industrial and laboratory biological processes
• Upscaling from small scale to production scale
• Growth kinetics and process dynamics
• Microbial physiology and overflow metabolism
• Strain development via Metabolic Engineering and Evolutionary Engineering
• Procedures for culturing mammalian cells, filamentous fungi, yeasts and bacteria
• Industrial production of, among others, enzymes, antibiotics, starter cultures, organic acids, ethanol as a biofuel, and beer
• Physiologically based process control strategies
• Mathematical modeling and simulation using Matlab

The course literature consists of handouts, scientific articles and book chapters referred to during the course. Students must download the required texts via the E-journals and E-books available at the Chalmers library homepage: http://www.lib.chalmers.se/.

Chapters 3 and 4 in:
Stephanopoulos, Aristidou and Nielsen (1998), Metabolic engineering. Principles and methodologies. Academic Press. (Available as E-book via the Chalmers library)

Selected material from
Moo-Young, M (editor) (2011): Comprehensive Biotechnology (Second Edition), Elsevier (available as E-book).

The course literature used in KMB040/KMB041 and KKR090/KKR091 may also be used as reference books:

• Madigan MT (2012) Brock biology of microorganisms (13th edition). Pearson Education, (or other editions)
• Matthews, Appling, Anthony-Cahill, van Holde (2013) Biochemistry (4th edition). Pearson education (or other editions)
• Nielsen J, Villadsen J, Lidén G (2011) Bioreaction Engineering Principles (3rd  edition), Springer (available as E-book)

The final written exam contains descriptive and quantitative questions on contents covered in the lectures, exercises and course literature. 

The final grade is based on the written final exam (50%); the report (17%) and the oral presentation of the project proposal (8%); and the written report on simulation exercises (25%). There are strict deadlines for submission of assignments. Further details, e.g. criteria for assessment of assignments, are given in the course PM.