Lecture 1 - intro (history, definitions etc) Flashcards
Definition of biotechnology
quantitative study of the use of microorganisms
What did people do with ancient biotechnology? 2 things
- Used microorganisms to ferment beverages
- Used a process called retting
- linen (the fabric) is made from microorganisms using this
Classical biotechnological processes - how can they be controlled and examples
- They occur spontaneously, sometimes with use of startercultures
- Can only be controlled through process conditions
examples: mixed cultures of microorganisms
- beer and wine in fermentation, wort/must (saccharomyces, other yeasts)
- linnen (retting of flax) => clostridium bacteria
- bread (sourdough), yoghurt (dairy fermentation), chocolate, soy sauce etc
What did Robert Koch do?
He went from mixed to pure cultures and had different critera for the culture:
- pathogen has to be identified in every patient
- isolation of the bacteria and cultivation in pure culture
- contamination of healthy host by pure culture
- re-isolation of pure culture from contaminated host
Biotechnological history: until ca 1980
- did isolation of microorganisms from the environment for new processes/products
- detailed, often empirical optimisation of process conditions
-> reproducible starting material
->no contaminations - strain improvement
-> isolation of mutant (spontaneous, induced) with desired attributes
What to think about when designing a bioreactor
- which stirrer to use to distribute gas evenly through the process so each organism gets the necessary amount of oxygen
- pH optimum for the microorganisms
- temperature should be even throughout the process
- sterilization
-> aseptic conditions so everything has to be sterilized
Biotechnological history: after 1980
- recombinant DNA technology (new products and processes such as for insulin, detergents, fuels etc)
- classical strain improvement intensified
-> automation with robots - genomics/systems biology
-> studying the cell as a part of the system will help with influence on production and growth - further exploration of microbial diversity
-> metagenomics - synthetic biology
-> synthetic genes and enzymes, genetic modifications such as CRISPR etc
4 “flavours” of biotechnology
- medical biotechnology
- production of medicines, diagnostics and vaccines
- mos as screening platform for medicines
- mos and mammalian cells as production systems for small organic molecules and proteins
- high costs (clinical trials etc)
- genetic modification fully accepted - food biotechnology
- improvements in shelf-life, nutritional value, structure through “fermentation” with mos
- complex feedstocks
- alternative sources of protein
- genetic modification depends on consumer acceptance - industrial biotechnology
- alternative for inorganic-chemical catalysis (fine chemicals)
- synthesis of complex (optically active) organic compounds (fine chemicals)
- integration of chemical/biotechnological process steps - environmental biotechnology
- all biologically produced compounds are biodegradable
- purifying water streams => restore the balance in the cycles of elements C, N, S, P
- open mixed cultures are controlled by process design and regulation
- trend now: waste water as feedstock for biogas, bioplastics etc
- xenobiotics = new-to-nature compounds (microbial breakdown can now happen, for example PE plastics can now be broken down by microorganisms containing a certain enzyme)
Industrial biotechnology: bioethanol Brazil
In Brazil, ethanol is made from cane sugars where the cane sugars are hydrolysed into glucose and fructose.
- from there: yeast can perform fermentation to make ethanol from the sugars
- this is a commodity chemical = chemicals made in huge amounts
- > increasingly dependent on political/economic factors
What is economic potential in biotechnology determined by?
- cost of raw materials
- requirements to purity of feedstocks
- yield of product - cost of equipment and labour
- yield of product
- rate of product formation
- size and complexity of equipment - cost of down-stream processing and waste removal/purification
- formation of byproducts (yield)
- final product concentration (=titre)
- raw materials that remain unused
TRY
T = titre (concentration)
R = rate
Y = yield
