The instrumentation requested in this proposal will enhance the PIs research in animal-cell culture engineering and metabolic engineering of anaerobic bacteria by enabling the PIs to more closely monitor changes in cell metabolism and product expression. The requested instruments will be initially used for three major research projects. The first project investigates the effect of various environmental stresses on monoclonal antibody production by hybridoma cells. It will also examine the utility of stress-protein promoters for production of recombinant glycoproteins by animal cells. The second examines effects of the bioreactor hydrodynamic environment on the viability, metabolism, macromolecular synthesis, and product expression of animal cells in microcarrier and free-suspension reactors. The third project will investigate the ability and means of altering the primary metabolism (metabolic engineering) of butyric-acid anaerobic bacteria (clostridia) in order to construct more efficient whole-cell biocatalysts for large scale anaerobic fermentations.
