NPLK24001U Biological Production Hosts: Bench to Pilot Scale

Volume 2024/2025
Education

MSc Programme in Biosolutions

Content

The aim of the course is to educate students in different engineered host organisms and production hosts. Likewise, how a process developed in the lab can be scaled up to industrial manufacturing. 

A key step in biosolutions is the choice of microorganism – the host system for production, and afterwards to understand the challenges of scaling up from lab-scale to industrial scale.

The teaching will partly be based on industrial case studies. The goal is for students to gain a theoretical understanding of how the choice of host organisms and lab-based processes can be translated into a full manufacturing scale process for sustainable and efficient production of recombinant proteins, peptides and metabolites.

The teaching will partly be based on industrial case studies. The goal is for students to gain an in-depth understanding of how lab-based processes can be translated into a full manufacturing scale process for sustainable and efficient production of recombinant proteins, peptides and metabolites.

Topics that will be covered in the course:

  • Choice of a host organism e.g.:
    • Copy number, promoter strength and induction
    • Expression vectors
  • Stability of the product  e.g.
    • Secretion of proteins and signal trapping
    • Post-translational modifications in different host organisms
    • Expression of toxic proteins
  • Optimization of expression level and  Fermentation parameters



In the course, focus will be on a range of different industrially relevant production hosts, such as

  • Escherichia coli
  • Bacillus
  • Saccharomyces
  • Pichia 
  • Aspergillus
Learning Outcome

After completing the course, the student should have acquired the following:
 

Knowledge:

  • Describe the main features of industrially relevant production hosts such as E.coli, Bacillus, S.cerevisiae, P.pastoris, Aspergillus, including cell biology and physiology
  • Describe important parameters for production hosts such as: Expression levels, Type of post-translational modifications, Mechanisms for secretion of the product, Stability of the product, Stability of the transformed expression host, Strategies for optimization of the expression level and quality of the product.

 

Skills:

  • Devise changes to expression hosts to optimise the production of a desired product.
  • Calculation of mass balances and cost-efficiency
  • Identify and trouble-shoot problems during fermentations 

 

Competences:

  • Transfer theory and principles regarding the usefulness of different organisms as expression hosts for different products.
  • Analyze and evaluate if a certain organism is suitable for a specific production.
  • Suggest improvement on an organism or a fermentation parameter that will impact the fermentation production/product
  • Ability to design a fermentation strategy for a given product (incl monitoring) 

 

Digitalization

  • Bioinformatic information is found by searching in public databases such as (NCBI, UniProt and TAIR)
  • Analysis of experimental data.
  • Calculation of fermentation mass balances based on experimental data.

The course is based on:

  • Selected reviews
  • Scientific papers for presentation and discussion
     

 

Qualifications within microbiology, molecular biology, cell biology and biochemistry corresponding to a BSc in Biosolutions.

Academic qualifications equivalent to a BSc degree is recommended.
In the course there will be lectures as well as student presentations based on cases and journals. Student groups will present one time and be opponents on the presentations from the other groups, leading to a class discussion of the topic. There will be excursions to one or more of nearby fermentation facilities at the Kalundborg site.
  • Category
  • Hours
  • Lectures
  • 24
  • Preparation
  • 109
  • Theory exercises
  • 32
  • Excursions
  • 8
  • Study Groups
  • 32
  • Exam
  • 1
  • Total
  • 206
Written
Oral
Continuous feedback during the course of the semester
Credit
7,5 ECTS
Type of assessment
Oral examination, 20 minutes (no preparation)
Type of assessment details
The exam starts off with discussing one of the theoretical cases. It is important to demonstrate an overview of the topics that have been covered and to discuss this using examples from the entire curriculum. We expect you to be able to compare the different production hosts and fermentation strategies.
Exam registration requirements

Handing in of the power point presentation together with a one page summary of the power point presentation including the input from class discussion.

Aid
Only certain aids allowed

Reports from cases, student presentations and notes.

Marking scale
7-point grading scale
Censorship form
No external censorship
Several internal examiners
Re-exam

Same as the ordinary exam.

If the requirements isn't met, the student need to hand in a power point presentation of a given topic together with a one page summary of the power point presentation 3 weeks before the reexam.

Criteria for exam assesment

See Learning outcome