AVT - Research - Research project

A measurement technique in microtiter plates for the non-invasive detection of products during microbial fermentations will be established utilising the fluorescence in the UV-range of new developed short tags.

In biotechnology it is of increasing importance to detect the product formation over time in addition to the growth of the microorganisms. On the one hand this simplifies the screening for optimal production strain on the other hand it enables to determine the best process time to reach the highest space time yield.

To meet the requirements of modern screening techniques, the BioLector® technology, developed at our chair, is used and enhanced. This unique technology uses light with defined wavelengths to irradiate a single well of a microtiter plate via a light fiber bundle. The resulting scattered light and the fluorescence are detected by a fluorescence spectrometer. Using the BioLector® technology we are able to detect online and non invasive the increasing biomass signal, pH, DOT and the formation of fluorescing products. All measurements are performed while continuously shaking the culture to avoid possible oxygen limitations.

Our cooperation partner AME developed short fluorescing tags based on the intrinsic fluorescence of amino acids. After characterising the tags properties a method is developed to quantitatively validate different concentrations of the various tags and the protein-tag-constructs, respectively. Thereby the existing technology is extended by optically focussed measurement techniques.