This award is to provide funding to develop a fermentation system with the capability to monitor and/or control a number of fermentation parameters. The first project is entitled, " A Study of Bacillus subtilis metabolism." B. subtilis is an important bacterium for hosting cloned foreign genes and for production of a number of extracellular proteins. An important engineering issue is the development of cultivation techniques to achieve high cell density and efficient conversion of substrate to a product. The PIs have begun examining the metabolism of B. subtilis under a wide range of growth conditions and a reliable fermentation monitoring system is required to expand their understanding of cell physiological responses to culture environment. The second project is entitled "Large Scale Bioreactor Growth Studies of Bone Marrow Stem Cells." This project will focus on the development of procedures for growing stem cells and for studying their differentiation to various cell types. The results of this research could have important utility in bone marrow transplantation.
