Center for Biosystems

Center for sensing technologies

Project aim: The BioSense Alt. The Protein Project &#8211; Student group aims to raise awareness of the importance of alternative sources of protein in nutritional, technological, economic, and scientific terms.
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About the project: The BioSense Alt. The Protein Project &#8211; Student group is part of a global student movement initiated by The Good Food Institute. The goal of this student group is that student leaders around the world (or student founders of such groups) work together in cooperation with their peers from faculties, institutes, ie. universities, in order to overcome many of the challenges facing our food system today. It is planned to gather students, primarily from the University of Novi Sad, but also from other universities across our country. The group currently has 78 registered members, who participate in various group activities. The goal of the project achieving is planned through the organization of various online lectures in English and Serbian, with guest lecturers from all these different fields of alternative proteins &#8211; both from the scientific world and from the world of &#8220;popular&#8221; science. In this way, students will have the opportunity to meet the most respected experts in this field, which is accompanied by their education on specific topics in the field of alternative proteins. Various team activities are also planned, such as writing blogs, various workshops, attending courses, Journal clubs, through which students will have the opportunity to get to know each other better, as well as to exchange knowledge and interests, which could lead to the emergence of new ideas.

Junior Research Assistant in the field of natural/mathematical sciences - chemistry and biochemistry

MIla Đisalov

Research trainee 

Teodora Knežić

Teodora Knežić joined BioSense Institute as Junior Researcher in the Center for Biosystems. Teodora has a bachelor's and master's degrees in Molecular Biology and she is currently a Ph.D. student of Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Sciences, University of Novi Sad, Serbia, with Dr Ivana Gađanski as the mentor. During her studies she volunteered in the Laboratory for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology at the Faculty of Sciences where was involved in the analyses of gene expression of the European corn borer using techniques for RNA isolation, gel electrophoresis, cDNA synthesis, end-point and qPCR analysis. Also, at the Institute for Nuclear Sciences Vinča she was trained to work with human cancer cell cultures, perform viability assays and flow cytometry. Teodora has just completed a 3 month specialization practice in BioSense as well. Her main research interests are biosensor development and molecular techniques for pathogen detection, cellular agriculture and development of lab-on-a-chip platforms.

Mila Djisalov has a BSc in Biochemistry and a Master’s degree in Molecular Biology. She is currently a Ph.D. Student of Biochemistry at the Faculty of Sciences in Novi Sad and a Junior Researcher in BioSense Institute. Her main research interests are biosensor development and molecular tools for pathogen detection, cellular agriculture, and the development of lab-on-a-chip platforms. Mila is also one of the co-founders of the student group The BioSense Alt. Protein Project formed at the BioSense Institute.

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This project is supported by the Good Food Institute and the BioSens Institute.

THE GOOD FOOD INSTITUTE GRANTS

Cellular agriculture refers to production of agricultural products using cell cultures. Cellular agriculture products are part of the larger group called Alternative proteins (alt.pro). Alt.pro are proteins that can act as substitutes for traditional animal‐based food. Generally, alt.pro are classified based on the source into: Plant-based, Insect-based and Cultured meat that is produced by cellular agriculture methods. Majority of the methods for cellular agriculture stem from the tissue engineering and biomedical field, while the application of the products generated by cellular agriculture falls predominantly into the food science.

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Cultured meat is the main type of alternative proteins BioSense addresses. One of the main challenges for scaling up the cultured meat production to the industry levels is concerning the overall costs of production. The highest portion of costs (up to 80%) for cultured meat production is for the cell culture medium and fetal calf or bovine serum. The challenge to decrease expenses is not only in designing low-cost cell culture medium formulations, but also in developing methods to optimize the bioreactor design, instrumentation and to include monitoring features via sensors for the maximum cell production capacity per unit medium volume.

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In that sense, we focus our research on optimizing procedures for generating cellular products, and we closely collaborate with the Center for sensing technologies regarding development of sensors for monitoring of key parameters in cultured meat bioprocess: Biomass concentration, a key variable in cell cultures and Concentration of key nutrients – glucose and glutamine and their main metabolites, lactate and ammonia, that can inhibit the cell growth. Sensors are tested using "miniaturized" bioreactors i.e. microfluidic model and Lab-on-a-chip (LOC) principle, which will be scaled up to the bioreactors of larger volumes.

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Projects:

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REALSENSE1 - Monitoring of cell culture parameters using sensors for biomass and nutrients/metabolites in media: Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) approach, 2019-2021; Good Food Institute Inaugural Competitive Grant Program.

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REALSENSE2 - From lab-on-a-chip to custom bioreactor: scale up modeling study, 2020-2022 Good Food Institute Competitive Grant Program

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<img class="alignnone wp-image-1459 size-large" src="https://api.biosens.rs/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/31-1024x644.png" alt="" width="1024" height="644" />

Cellular agriculture

The BioSense Alt. Protein Project – Student group

Centar za Biosisteme

Centar za senzorske tehnologije

Cilj projekta: Studentska grupa The BioSense Alt. Protein Project ima za cilj podizanje svesti o značaju alternativnih izvora proteina u prehrambenom, tehnološkom, ekonomskom i naučnom smislu.
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O projektu: Studentska grupa The BioSense Alt. Protein Project je deo globalnog studentskog pokreta iniciranog od strane Instituta Dobre Hrane (The Good Food Institute) čiji je cilj da studenti lideri širom sveta, iliti studenti osnivači ovakvih grupa, u saradnji sa svojim vršnjacima sa fakulteta, instituta, tj. univerziteta, rade na prevazilaženju brojnih izazova sa kojima se danas suočava naš prehrambeni sistem.
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U okviru ove grupe, planirano je okupljanje studenata, pre svega sa Univerziteta u Novom Sadu, ali i sa ostalih univerziteta širom naše zemlje. Grupa trenutno broji 78 registrovanih članova, koji učestvuju u različitim aktivnostima grupe. Ostvarenje cilja projekta je planirano kroz organizaciju različitih onlajn predavanja na engleskom i srpskom jeziku pri čemu bi gostujući predavači bili upravo iz svih ovih različitih oblasti koje se tiču alternativnih proteina &#8211; kako iz naučnog sveta, tako i iz sveta “popularne” nauke. Na ovaj način studenti će imati prilike da upoznaju najcenjenije stručnjake iz ove oblasti, što je praćeno njihovom edukacijom o specifičnim temama iz oblasti alternativnih proteina. Kroz projekat je takođe planirana organizacija različitih timskih aktivnosti poput pisanja blogova, različitih radionica, pohađanje kurseva, Journal club-ova, pomoću kojih će studenti imati priliku da se međusobno bolje upoznaju, kao i da razmenjuju znanja i interesovanja, što bi moglo da dovede do nastanka novih ideja.

Istraživač-pripravnik u oblasti prirodno-matematičkih nauka – hemija-biohemija

Mila Đisalov

Istraživač- pripravnik 

Teodora Knežić je zaposlena kao istraživač-pripravnik na Institutu BioSens, u Centru za biosisteme. Teodora je završila osnovne i master akademske studije molekularne biologije i trenutno pohađa doktorske akademske studije molekularne biologije na Prirodno-matematičkom fakultetu Univerziteta u Novom Sadu, pod mentorstvom dr Ivane Gađanski. Tokom svojih studija volontirala je u Laboratoriji za biohemiju i molekularnu biologiju na Prirodno-matematičkom fakultetu gde je vršila analizu genske ekspresije kukuruznog plamenca koristeći metode za izolaciju RNK, gel elektroforezu, sintezu cDNK, end-point i qPCR analizu. Takođe, na Institutu za nuklearne nauke Vinča obučena je za rad sa humanim ćelijskim linijama, izvođenje eseja vijabilnosti i protočnu citometriju. Teodora je završila i tromesečno fakultativno stručno usavršavanje na Institutu BioSens. Njen glavni fokus istraživanja je razvoj biosenzora i molekularnih tehnika za detekciju patogena, ćelijska poljoprivreda i razvoj lab-on-a-chip platformi.

Mila Đisalov je diplomirani biohemičar i master molekularne biologije. Trenutno je student doktorskih studija biohemije na Prirodno-matematičkom fakultetu u Novom Sadu i istraživač-pripravnik na Institutu BioSens. Njena glavna istraživačka interesovanja vezana su za razvoj biosenzora i molekularnih alata za detekciju patogena, ćelijska poljoprivreda i razvoj laboratorija na čipu. Mila je takođe jedan od osnivača studentske grupe The BioSense Alt. Protein Project, osnovane na Institutu BioSens.

 Ovaj projekat je podržan od strane Instituta Dobre Hrane i Instituta BioSens.

GRANTOVI INSTITUTA DOBRE HRANE

Ćelijska poljoprivreda se bavi proizvodnjom poljoprivrednih proizvoda pomoću kultura ćelija i ulazi u oblast tzv. alternativnih proteina (alt.pro). Alt. pro su proteini koji se mogu koristiti kao zamena za uobičajene životinjske proteine. Alt.pro mogu biti biljnog porekla, mogu biti i od insekata, a posebna grupa proteina označena kao kultivisano meso se dobija pomoću metoda ćelijske poljoprivrede. Većina metoda ćelijske poljoprivrede potiče iz biomedicine i tkivnog inženjerstva, dok primene i upotreba proizvoda dobijenih ćelijskom poljoprivredom pretežno pripadaju oblasti tehnologije hrane.

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Kultivisano meso je osnovni tip alternativnih proteina kojim se bavi Institut BioSens. Jedan od glavnih izazova za skaliranje tj. industrijsku proizvodnju kultivisanog mesa su ukupni troškovi proizvodnje. Najveći deo troškova (čak do 80%) za kultivaciju mesa potiče od cene hranljivog medijuma i fetalnog goveđeg seruma, neophodnih za gajenje ćelija u kulturi. Troškovi se mogu smanjiti ne samo jeftinijim formulacijama hranljivog seruma, već i putem metoda optimizacije dizajna bioreaktora i instrumenata i naročito upotrebom senzorskog sistema praćenja ključnih parametara, da bi se postigla maksimalna produkcija ćelija po jedinici zapremine medijuma.

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U tom smislu se fokusiramo na optimizaciju procedura za dobijanje ćelijskih produkata, a u bliskoj saradnji sa Centrom za senzorske tehnologije razvijamo i senzore za praćenje ključnih parametara u bioprocesu kultivacije mesa: koncentracija biomase, što je osnovni parametar ćelijske kulture i koncentracija osnovnih hranljivih materija – glukoze i glutamina i njihovih glavnih metabolita, laktata i amonijaka, koji mogu inhibirati rast ćelija. Senzori se testiraju na „minijaturizovanim“ bioreaktorima tj. mikrofluidnim modelima uz primenu „Laboratorija na čipu“ principa, koji će se zatim skalirati na bioreaktore većih zapremina.

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Projekti:

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REALSENSE1 - Monitoring of cell culture parameters using sensors for biomass and nutrients/metabolites in media: Lab-on-a-Chip (LOC) approach, 2019-2021; Good Food Institute Inaugural Competitive Grant Program.

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REALSENSE2 - From lab-on-a-chip to custom bioreactor: scale up modeling study, 2020-2022 Good Food Institute Competitive Grant Program

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<img class="alignnone wp-image-1459 size-large" src="https://api.biosens.rs/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/31-1024x644.png" alt="" width="1024" height="644" />

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The BioSense Alt. Protein Project – Student group

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CBS

CST