Use in bioprocesses

Cells and isolated enzymes are often susceptible to poisoning at low levels of chemical contamination. It is, therefore, necessary to carry out expensive purification of substrates (feedstocks) and water used in bioprocesses. 

While these examples illustrate the role of flow cytometry in bioprocess monitoring, the analyses have been conducted off-line thus making their use in bioprocess control impractical. Recently, a portable flow cytometer - the Microcyte - [148] has been described, which due to its small size and lower cost (compared to conventional machines) allows flow cytometry to be used as an at-line technique [149]. Ronning showed that this instrument had a role to play in the determination of viability of starter cultures and during fermentation. The physiological status of each individual cell is likely to be an important factor in the overall productivity of the culture and is therefore a key parameter in optimising production conditions. 

Aquatic crops. A wide variety of aquatic biomass resources exist, such as algae, giant kelp, other seaweed, and marine microflora. Commercial examples include giant kelp extracts for thickeners and food additives, algal dyes, and novel biocatalysts for use in bioprocessing under extreme environments. 

Cell lines used in bioprocesses are also known to release cytokines (e.g., IL-1, IL-6, etc.) and growth factors (e.g., G-CSF) during the production phase in the manufacture of biologies. In addition, when biologies are isolated and purified from blood or plasma products, presence cytokines and/or growth factors contamination that may contaminate the product after purification, and can be assessed by highly sensitive and specific ELISAs for these proteins. 

A recently highlighted application of PTR-MS is its use in bioprocess monitoring [78, 106, 126,127], which is important in the pharmaceutical industry. Although monitoring... 

TPV PharMed thermoplastic vulcanizate tubing has excellent flexural behavior which makes it a good choice for use in the peristaltic pumps commonly used in bioprocessing. 

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