Currently available instrumented bioreactors are expensive and bulky, thus making bioprocess development inefficient, as large numbers of simultaneous experiments simply cannot be conducted. The project objectives are to construct a low-cost instrumented micro-bioreactor and to demonstrate the feasibility of constructing a small-scale research module using optical sensor technology. The proposed work aims to extend the micro-bioreactor scale down to 250 microliters working volume in a 96 well microplate platform so that 96 fermentations can be carried out and monitored simultaneously. The PI proposes to design and construct such a device that will enable parallel monitoring and analyses of large number of fermentation and cell culture parameters. They anticipate that at about the cost of a bench top bioreactor ($20,000) they will be able to construct the instrumented micro-bioreactor platform. It is anticipated that the impact of this proposed work would be significant. This research result will remove a major bottleneck in bioprocess development and allow for much speedier and efficient optimization of fermentation and cell culture processes.
