Integrated Expression and Process Monitoring System for Biomanufacturing

"The goal of this Phase II SBIR project is to develop an improved process monitoring and control system for biomanufacturing. The completed system will include expression vectors that can be used to produce and secrete commercially useful peptides andother fermentation products, and a process control system for large-scale biomanufacturing. The vectors will encode for the simultaneous expression and secretion of a target peptide and a reporter peptide that can be monitored on-line during fermentationto facilitate process control. The process control system will incorporate an enzyme assay and detector module to monitor the production of the target peptides and to control the fermentation process. The vectors and process control system will be usedto produce antibodies and peptides for a wide range of commercial and defense applications. During Phase II, we will complete construction of Gram negative, Gram positive, and broad-host-range expression vectors and couple them to suitable host organisms.We also will complete development of the fermentation control module, and perform pilot-scale fermentation experiments to calibrate the process monitoring system and to produce fermentation products in quantities sufficient to evaluation their commercialand defense utility."