REALSENSE2- FROM LAB-ON-A-CHIP TO CUSTOM BIOREACTOR: SCALE UP MODELING STUDY, 2019-2021; Good Food Institute 2018 Competitive Grant Program

Project aim: RealSense2 will use mathematical modeling coupled to experimental validation to develop and optimize sensors for biomass & nutrients/metabolites in media and enable their integration into commercial bioreactors. This will provide better bioprocess control, in-line monitoring and when combined with filtering, can enable media recycling which may reduce overall costs of proliferation steps for cultivated meat production.

 

About the project: The specific objectives of the projects are a) to identify the most efficient configuration for integrating sensors into the stirred tank bioreactor through coupled mathematical modeling, computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and experiment, b) to develop and fabricate integration-ready sensors of biomass/nutrient/metabolite sensors ready for integration (TRL5-6) into the bioreactor and to integrate the fabricated sensors into the bioreactor following design identified through the CFD models as the most efficient, and c) to test the bioreactors with integrated sensors using commercially-relevant cell types provided by the advisory members. Importantly, cells of different origin will be tested i.e. mammalian and invertebrate.