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Updated: May 17, 2026
06:24
Generic Protocol for Optimization of Heterologous Protein Production Using Automated Microbioreactor Technology
Published on: December 15, 2017
An automated workflow for enhancing microbial bioprocess optimization on a novel microbioreactor platform.
Peter Rohe1, Deepak Venkanna, Britta Kleine
1Institute of Bio- and Geosciences, IBG-1: Biotechnology, Systems Biotechnology, Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH, 52425 Jülich, Germany. p.rohe@fz-juelich.de
Microbial Cell Factories
|November 2, 2012
Summary
Automated microtiter plate cultivation accelerates bioprocess development for heterologous protein production. This high-throughput system enables rapid optimization and scalable results for efficient strain screening and process enhancement.
Area of Science:
- Biotechnology
- Bioprocess Engineering
- Molecular Biology
Background:
- High-throughput screening provides binary productivity data but lacks quantitative parameters for bioprocess development.
- Optimizing heterologous protein production requires extensive experimentation due to unpredictable protein behavior and process variables.
Purpose of the Study:
- To develop and validate an automated, high-throughput cultivation platform for efficient bioprocess development.
- To optimize the secretory production of cutinase from Fusarium solani pisi using Corynebacterium glutamicum.
Main Methods:
- Integrated a microtiter plate cultivation system (Biolector) with a liquid-handling platform in a laminar airflow housing.
- Utilized online monitoring of biomass, dissolved oxygen, and pH for automated sampling and dosing.
- Developed and validated automated media optimization and induction profiling.
Main Results:
- Achieved optimization of secretory cutinase production at the microtiter plate scale.
- Demonstrated scalable results from microtiter plate optimization to 1 L and 20 L stirred tank bioreactors.
- Enabled reliable selection of high-performing cutinase producers through automated analysis.
Conclusions:
- Microtiter plate cultivation integrated with liquid handling boosts throughput via parallelization and automation.
- This setup offers superior performance over standard methods due to improved statistics and scalable process information.
- Efficiently accelerates the optimization of biological and bioprocess parameters for heterologous protein expression.
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