Our senior editors. Stefan Buchholz: industrial biotechnology

Strain improvement is a foundational strategy in industrial microbiology aimed at maximizing microbial productivity, particularly because natural isolates typically yield commercially valuable products in very low concentrations. Although optimizing the culture medium and environmental conditions can improve yields, these adjustments are inherently limited by the organism’s genetic potential. As a result, the focus shifts toward genetic modifications to enhance biosynthetic capacity. The...

Bioreactors are engineered vessels designed to cultivate microorganisms under controlled conditions for industrial bioprocessing. They maintain sterility and allow precise regulation of pH, temperature, oxygen, and nutrient levels to optimize microbial growth and metabolite production. Bioreactors range from small laboratory units of 1 liter to industrial systems holding up to 500,000 liters, though only about 75% of their volume is actively used for fermentation. The remaining headspace...

The scale-up of microbial fermentation processes is essential in industrial biotechnology, allowing the transition from laboratory-scale experiments to commercial-scale production while aiming to maintain product yield and quality. This process requires meticulous adjustment of equipment design, process parameters, and contamination control strategies to accommodate increasing culture volumes.At the laboratory scale, cultures are typically maintained in 1 to 10-liter glass or autoclavable...

Bioremediation is the use of prokaryotes, fungi, or plants to remove pollutants from the environment. This process has been used to remove harmful toxins in groundwater as a byproduct of agricultural run-off and also to clean up oil spills.

Maintaining optimal conditions within fermenters is essential for maximizing microbial productivity and ensuring process efficiency. This lesson focuses on key parameters—temperature, foam, pH, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and pressure—and their precise measurement and control strategies in fermentation systems.Temperature ControlTemperature regulation is critical due to the exothermic nature of many fermentation processes. In small laboratory fermenters, temperature is commonly monitored using...

Most eukaryotic organisms require oxygen to survive and function adequately. Such organisms produce large amounts of energy during aerobic respiration by metabolizing glucose and oxygen into carbon dioxide and water. However, most eukaryotes can generate some energy in the absence of oxygen by anaerobic metabolism.
Fermentation is a type of metabolic process that occurs in the absence of oxygen, where organic molecules such as glucose are broken down to produce energy. During this process, the...