Process Development

The elements of metabolic engineering and process development go hand in hand. When a strain is under development, important aspects of a product’s chemical form influence the economics and design of the bioreaction and the downstream recovery steps. Designing the process properly means great emphasis is placed on replicating the projected commercial production as closely as possible. For GlycosBio this is the core philosophy of its approach to process development.

Process development is the design & engineering of the fermentation to meet the specific requirements of a given product while optimizing process quality and cost objectives. The end goal is the best commercial production operation possible. It requires understanding the properties of the feedstock, the final titer of the product, and the reaction mechanism involved. For example, a reaction may proceed rapidly toward a very high final titer, thus necessitating a smaller number of microorganisms and a shorter fermentation time. The process development involves GlycosBio engineers specifying design elements to the reactor equipment as well as operational protocols directing the production.