Fermentation biotechnology

The course is organised in two units: 1 -Industrial Bioprocess Development (3.5 CFU of frontal lessons + 0.5 CFU of lab practice, Diego Romano); 2 - Improvement of bioprocesses in yeast (3 CFU, Concetta Compagno). The detailed program:

Teaching Unit 1: Industrial Bioprocesses Development, - D. Romano (3.5 CFU + 0.5 CFU lab)
Introduction to bioprocesses: bioreactor design, fermentation techniques (batch, fed batch, continuous), scale-up and scale down approaches, downstream processing, experimental design applied to industrial fermentations. Industrial examples: production of aminoacids (glutamic acid, lysine), organic acids (citric, lactic), solvents, biofuels (ethanol, butanol), flavours (vanilline), antibiotics; production of recombinant proteins in prokaryotes. New generation of bioprocesses: biomaterials (polyamide, polylactic-acid, bacterial cellulose, polyhydroxyalkanoates), fermentation of gaseous substrates (CO2, CH4). Laboratory practice (0.5 CFU) is focused on the set-up and analysis of a fermentation process.
Teaching Unit 2: Improvement of bioprocesses in yeast, - C. Compagno (3 CFU)
Strategies to improve the metabolic performance of yeast cells and production process:
metabolic flux balance analysis;
recombinant technology in yeast,
regulation of carbon source metabolism in yeasts.
Strategies to redirect existent metabolic pathways improving industrial processes.
Strategies to utilize alternative carbon sources for biofuels production.
Strategies to increase stress tolerance for industrial processes.
Strategies to introduce new pathways for production of new compounds.