(277f) From Nature to the Classroom: Culturing an Environmental Isolate in a Small-Scale Bioreactor for a Unit Operations Laboratory Course

Bioreactors are widely utilized in chemical industries, from large unstirred tanks in which yeast make ethanol to disposable-bag type reactors used to produce monoclonal antibodies. As such, bioproduction targets molecules for the pharmaceutical, food, cosmetics, and commodity chemical markets. Additionally, biological production offers a sustainable route of synthesis, often taking plant sugars that result from photosynthesis and converting them into chemicals. For the senior-level Unit Operations laboratory presented here, students characterized a two-liter bioreactor, which is commonly used to evaluate cell growth performance and production at a small-scale before moving to larger reactors. The bacterium studied is an environmental-isolate of B. megaterium (called SR7) that was isolated six-years ago from an underground CO₂ reservoir during my postdoctoral studies. Due to the industrial and societal relevance of the project, the novelty of working with a bacterium that few have studied, and the integration of topics from across the chemical engineering curriculum, students find the laboratory to be engaging and rewarding as they apply their previous knowledge to a challenging project. I will present the objectives for the laboratory, student-produced data, and ideas to implement this laboratory in other undergraduate programs.