Team:TU Dresden/Sustainability
Sustainability
Total complete efficiency converting reactant to product is incredibly difficult, and in some cases, waste or side product formation is inevitable. The PACE papers describe a variety of different cultivation conditions that unavoidably result in the consumption of chemicals and generation of waste product [1, 2]. A goal of our iGEM project was to reduce the consumption of these chemicals and waste production by optimizing the cultivation process. The team reached out to the department of bioprocess engineering where they got caught on the idea of the project and two students decided to join the team. The department for bioprocess engineering made it possible to use their laboratories and resources for the cultivation experiment. Furthermore they supported us with their experience in continuous E. coli cultivation.
With the goal of increasing the sustainability the cultivation a balance sheet was drawn up for the process. This increased the survey of the process and helped to identify 3 parts of the process which were giving us the possibility to improve the sustainability.
Minimize waste volume
Minimize medium volume
Reduce antibiotics
- Dickinson, B. C., Packer, M. S., Badran, A. H., Liu, D. R. (2014). A system for the continuous directed evolution of proteases rapidly reveals drug-resistance mutations. Nature Communications, 5, Article number: 5352.
- Esvelt, K. M., Carlson, J. C., Liu, D.R. (2011). A system for the continuous directed evolution of biomolecules. Nature, 472(7344), 499-503.