Improving Algae Growth Kinetics in Suspension Bioreactors for the Production of Recombinant Proteins
Abstract
Millions of individuals rely on recombinant proteins such as essential biopharmaceuticals. Recently, genetically engineered microalgae have been identified as a potentially inexpensive and fast growing host organism for recombinant protein production. Using Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, a species of unicellular green microalgae, the goal was to improve algal cell growth kinetics, genetically engineer the cells and develop a bioprocess to analyze recombinant protein production.
C. reinhardtii growth kinetics were improved under mixotrophic growth conditions using acetate in small scale 10 mL cultures. This process was scaled-up to 500 mL spinner flask suspension bioreactors and through the use of a fed-batch acetate feeding strategy, cell growth rates and maximum cell concentrations were improved. A genetic construct was designed, manufactured, isolated and used to genetically transform C. reinhardtii. A bioprocess was then developed to isolate and analyze protein production rates from these cells. Results indicated product concentrations of 8.44 mg/L of culture.
Description
Keywords
Microbiology, Engineering--Biomedical, Engineering--Chemical
Citation
Clark, B. R. (2016). Improving Algae Growth Kinetics in Suspension Bioreactors for the Production of Recombinant Proteins (Master's thesis, University of Calgary, Calgary, Canada). Retrieved from https://prism.ucalgary.ca. doi:10.11575/PRISM/26485