2. According to determined maximum growth rate, turbidostat
experiments can be laid out, to determine washout of host cells.
(a)
This can be done in a single experiment increasing the
dilution rate in a stepwise approach.
(b)
Interval is adjusted according to μmax in 5–10% steps.
(c)
Each step needs to be held for 4–5 residence times until
biomass washout can be obtained.
3. Effect of dilution rate must be correlated to productivity: This
approach is confronted with a high experimental load where
effects of product stability need to be correlated to the dilution
rates.
(a)
Parallelization
increases
throughput
(i.e.,
multiple
induced reactors (Figs. 3 and 4)).
(b)
Design of experiment approaches can be used in case a
second factor influences productivity to reduce experi-
mental workload.
5.2
Substrate Uptake
Rate
1. In the first stage of cascaded continuous cultivation, μ can be
directly correlated to the specific substrate uptake rate.
2. In the second stage, substrate uptake rate can be either adjusted
via the ratio of inducer feed to the ratio of transferred cells or
the feed concentration; hence, Eq. 2 must be used for specific
substrate uptake rate calculation.
3. For experimental approaches on specific uptake rate determi-
nation, the following approach is utilized:
(a)
Inducer feed is set to lower values at first, whereas biomass
stream requires settings to a higher level to avoid washout
of host cells.
(b)
Desired ratios can be adjusted in a turibodstat-like
approach; i.e., start at 90% Biomass-stream (X1) and at
10% F2 or F3 of the overall dilution rate in stage 2.
4. When altering the overall dilution rate in stage 2 of cascaded
continuous cultivation, the approach shown in point 3 has to
be repeated until the desired specific substrate uptake rate is
adjusted. This is required as the average residence time influ-
ences substrate uptake rates.
5.3
Cultivation
Temperature
1. Effects of productivity in microbials is often correlated to
expression temperature. Temperature dependency thus needs
to be investigated.
2. As continuous processes suffer from a high experimental load,
screening for optimized production temperature is recommend
to be performed in fed-batch cultivations.
A Guideline to Set Up Cascaded Continuous Cultivation with E. coli Bl21 (DE3)
237