• Journal of Astronomy and Space Sciences
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• 제32권1호
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• pp.81-89
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• 2015

In this paper, we describe the development of a bioreactor for a cell-culture experiment on the International Space Station (ISS). The bioreactor is an experimental device for culturing mouse muscle cells in a microgravity environment. The purpose of the experiment was to assess the impact of microgravity on the muscles to address the possibility of long-term human residence in space. After investigation of previously developed bioreactors, and analysis of the requirements for microgravity cell culture experiments, a bioreactor design is herein proposed that is able to automatically culture 32 samples simultaneously. This reactor design is capable of automatic control of temperature, humidity, and culture-medium injection rate; and satisfies the interface requirements of the ISS. Since bioreactors are vulnerable to cell contamination, the medium-circulation modules were designed to be a completely replaceable, in order to reuse the bioreactor after each experiment. The bioreactor control system is designed to circulate culture media to 32 culture chambers at a maximum speed of 1 ml/min, to maintain the temperature of the reactor at $36{\pm}1^{\circ}C$, and to keep the relative humidity of the reactor above 70%. Because bubbles in the culture media negatively affect cell culture, a de-bubbler unit was provided to eliminate such bubbles. A working model of the reactor was built according to the new design, to verify its performance, and was used to perform a cell culture experiment that confirmed the feasibility of this device.

• 한국정밀공학회지
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• 제29권9호
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• pp.946-957
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• 2012

The objective of this paper is to investigate into the development of a thin flat panel photo-bioreactor case with characteristics shapes. The thin flat panel photo-bioreactor case was designed to be manufactured from a plastic thermoforming process. A proper design with a relatively high rigidity was obtained through the structural analyses for different designs of the photo-bioreactor case. The thermoforming analyses were performed. From the results of the thermoforming analyses, a proper forming condition and the formability of the designed plastic photo-bioreactor case were estimated. The thermoforming moulds for the flat panel photobioreactor cases were manufactured. The thermoforming experiments were performed to examine the manufacturability of the designed flat panel photo-bioreactor cases. From the results of the thermoforming experiments, it was shown that thin flat panel photo-bioreactor cases with characteristic shapes can be manufactured from the designed thermoforming mould and process.

• 한국자원공학회지
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• 제55권6호
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• pp.527-537
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• 2018

황산염 함량이 높은 광산배수를 대상으로 황산염환원균(Sulfate reducing bacteria, SRB)을 이용한 생물반응기의 설계인자를 도출하고자 컬럼실험을 수행하였다. 생물반응기의 기질물질로 우분을 기본으로 하여 버섯퇴비를 혼합하고, 보조제로써 볏짚, 석회석을 각각 혼합하여 적용하였다. 우분(70%), 버섯퇴비(10%), 볏짚(20%)을 기질물질로 사용하였을 때 최대 82%의 용존된 총 황 제거효율을 보였고, 체류시간은 2일 일 때 높은 효율을 보였다. 생물반응기 내 광산배수의 흐름이 상향류 일 때 배출수 내 환원형태의 황이 산소와 직접 접촉하면서 재산화되어 제거효율이 감소하는 것으로 나타났다. 황산염환원에 따른 금속 황화물 형성을 유도하기 위한 무기성 슬러지의 주입은 비소의 환원성 용해 및 SRB에 독성을 발현하여 생물반응기의 장기적 운영을 저해할 수 있다. 연구결과, 우분을 포함한 혼합기질물질을 활용한 하향류의 생물반응기가 황산염 및 용존된 총 황을 효과적으로 제거하였고, 이는 황산염 함유량이 높은 염수의 광산배수에서 적용이 가능할 것으로 판단된다.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제26권1호
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• pp.139-144
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• 2016

Synthetic oscillators are gene circuits in which the protein expression will change over time. The delay of transcription, translation, and protein folding is used to form this kind of behavior. Here, we tried to design a synthetic oscillator by a negative feedback combined with a positive feedback. With the mutant promoter P_LacC repressed by LacIq and P_Lux activated by AHL-bound LuxR, two gene circuits, Os-LAA and Os-ASV, were constructed and introduced into LacI-deleted E. coli DH5α cells. When glucose was used as the carbon source, a low level of fluorescence was detected in the culture, and the bacteria with Os-ASV showed no oscillation, whereas a small portion of those carrying Os-LAA demonstrated oscillation behavior with a period of about 68.3 ± 20 min. When glycerol was used as the carbon source, bacteria with Os-ASV demonstrated high fluorescence value and oscillation behavior with the period of about 121 ± 21 min.

• KSBB Journal
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• 제6권3호
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• pp.231-240
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• 1991

Recently, developments of large scale and high density cell culture methods have been the objects of many researches, because the demand of various pharmaceutical products produced by animal cell culture has been rapidly increasing. The cell culture equipment should have the requirements such as sufficient oxygen transfer and mixing, low shear stress and surface tension, and small foaming. In order to develop a proper bioreactor meeting these requirements simultaneously, a perfluorocarbon having high solubility of oxygen was sprayed into the medium as an oxygen carrier instead of air. Also, a new impeller was developed and combined together with the perfluorocarbon spraying system so as to design a new bioreartor for cell cultivation. The new impeller had better characteristics of mixing and oxygen transfer than the paddle and cell-lift impellers based on the same, shear rate. But, it was observed that the volumetric oxygen transfer coefficient of the new bioreactor decreased with increasing cell density during E. coli fermentation.

• 대한기계학회논문집B
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• 제39권8호
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• pp.633-643
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• 2015

본 연구의 목적은 고효율 미세기포 공급장치인 산기관을 개발하기 위하여, 미세기포를 이용하여 하폐수에 용존산소를 효율적으로 공급하고 슬러지에 의한 기공의 막힘을 최소화함으로써 호기성 미생물에 의한 유기물 분해공정의 효율성과 내구성을 개선하고자 하였다. 종래의 미세기포 산기관을 개선하기 위하여, 실험과 전산해석 방법을 이용하여 미세기포를 발생시키면서 슬러지에 의한 막힘현상이 없는 원뿔형 산기관을 개발하였다. 전산해석을 통하여 단위 산기관 내부의 공기유동패턴을 확인하여 산기관 설계를 보완하고, 모의 생물반응기에 단위 산기관을 적용하여 발생 기포 거동 실험과 2상유체유동에 대한 전산해석을 수행하였다. 실험 결과로서 모의 생물반응기 내에서 발생기포 수직 길이 및 상승속도 등 기포거동에 대한 통계치를 도출하였으며, 전산해석 결과로서 기포군의 거동을 포함한 유동특성에 대한 메커니즘을 규명하였다. 이를 통하여 고효율 산기관 설계를 체계화하였고 모의 생물반응기 내에서 기포거동과 내부유동 현상을 규명함으로써, 실증 수처리장 규모 생물반응기에 산기관 군체를 적용하여 산소전달특성 및 내부유동특성을 파악하고 시스템을 설계하는데 중요한 근거를 제시하였다.

• Environmental Engineering Research
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• 제21권2호
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• pp.196-202
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• 2016

Membrane bioreactor (MBR) technology has previously been used by water industry to treat high salinity wastewater. In this study, an anoxic-oxic biofilm-membrane bioreactor (AOB-MBR) system has been developed to treat mustard tuber wastewater of 10% salinity (calculated as NaCl). To figure out the effects of operating conditions of the AOB-MBR on membrane fouling rate ($K_V$), response surface methodology was used to evaluate the interaction effect of the three key operational parameters, namely time interval for pump (t), aeration intensity ($U_{Gr}$) and transmembrane pressure (TMP). The optimal condition for lowest membrane fouling rate ($K_V$) was obtained: time interval was 4.0 min, aeration intensity was $14.6 m^3/(m^2{\cdot}h)$ and transmembrane pressure was 19.0 kPa. And under this condition, the treatment efficiency with different influent loads, i.e. 1.0, 1.9 and $3.3kgCODm^{-3}d^{-1}$ was researched. When the reactor influent load was less than $1.9kgCODm^{-3}d^{-1}$, the effluent could meet the third discharge standard of "Integrated Wastewater Discharge Standard". This study suggests that the model fitted by response surface methodology can predict accurately membrane fouling rate within the specified design space. And it is feasible to apply the AOB-MBR in the pickled mustard tuber factory, achieving satisfying effluent quality.

• Journal of Microbiology and Biotechnology
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• 제27권8호
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• pp.1461-1471
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• 2017

Escherichia coli heat-labile enterotoxin (LT) and its non-toxic mutant (LTm) are well-known powerful mucosal adjuvants and immunogens. However, the yields of these adjuvants from genetically engineered strains remain at extremely low levels, thereby hindering their extensive application in fundamental and clinical research. Therefore, efficient production of these adjuvant proteins from genetically engineered microbes is a huge challenge in the field of molecular biology. In order to explore the expression bottlenecks of LTm in E. coli, we constructed a series of recombinant plasmids based on various considerations and gene expression strategies. After comparing the protein expression among strains containing different recombinant plasmids, the signal sequence was found to be critical for the expression of LTm and its subunits. When the signal sequence was present, the strong hydrophobicity and instability of this amino acid sequence greatly restricted the generation of subunits. However, when the signal sequence was removed, abundantly expressed subunits formed inactive inclusion bodies that could not be assembled into the hexameric native form, although the inclusion body subunits could be refolded and the biological activity recovered in vitro. Therefore, the dilemma choice of signal sequence formed bottlenecks in the expression of LTm. These results reveal the expression bottlenecks of LTm, provide guidance for the preparation of LTm and its subunits, and certainly help to promote efficient preparation of this mucosal adjuvant protein.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• 제7권3호
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• pp.163-170
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• 2002

This report describes the use of a transtubular bioreactor to study the relative effects of diffusion versus perfusion of medium on antibody production by a hybridoma cell line. The study was performed with a high-density cell culture maintained in a serum-free, low-protein medium for 77 days. It was determined that the reactor possessed a macro-mixing pattern residence time distribution similar to a continuous stirred tank reactor (CSTR), However, due to the arrangement of the medium lines in the reactor, the flow patterns for nutrient distribution consist of largely independent medium path lengths ranging from short to long. When operated with cyclic, reversing, transtubular medium flow, some regions of the reactor (with short residence times) are more accessible to medium than others (with long residence times). From this standpoint, the reactor can be divided into three regions: a captive volume, which consists of medium primarily delivered via diffusion; a lapped volume, which provides nutrients through unilateral convection; and a swept volume, which operates through bilateral convection. The relative sizes of these three volumes were modified experimentally by changing the period over which the direction of medium flow was reversed from 15 min (larger captive volume) to 9 h (larger swept volume). The results suggest that antibody concentration increases as the size of the diffusion-limited (captive) volume is increased to a maximum at around 30 min with a sharp decrease thereafter. As reflected by changes in measured consumption of glucose and production of lactate, no significant difference in cellular metabolism occurred as the reactor was moved between these different states. These results indicate that the mode of operation of the transtubular bioreactor may influence antibody productivity under serum-free, low-protein conditions with minimal effects on cellular metabolism.

• Biotechnology and Bioprocess Engineering:BBE
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• 제4권1호
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• pp.41-45
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• 1999

Microbial cellulose has many potential applications due to its excellent physical properties. The production of cellulose from Acetobacter xylinum in submerged culture is, however, beset with numerous problems. The most difficult one has been the appearance of negative mutants under shaking culture conditions, which is deficient of cellulose producing ability. Thus genetic instability of Acetobacter xylinum under shaking culture condition made developing a stable mutant major research interest in recent years. To find a proper type of bioreactor for the production of microbial cellulose, several production systems were developed. Using a reactor system with planar type impeller with bottoms sparging system, it was possible to produce 5 g/L microbial cellulose without generating cellulose minus mutants, which is comparable to that of static culture system.