Jens Nielsen
Professor
Quantitative Systems Biology; Systems and Synthetic Biology, Biology and Biological Engineering, Chalmers University
Biography
To achieve large‐scale, high‐throughput experiments for systems biology research of microorganisms, reliable data from robust cultivation systems are needed. Chemostats are such systems, ensuring reproducibility and quality by providing a stable, well‐controlled environment for the cells. However, many of the available chemostat systems require large amounts of media and are complex to set up and expensive to purchase and maintain. To address these concerns, we developed a mini‐chemostat (MC) system with 16 reactors, each at a working volume of 40 ml. Sensors measure dissolved oxygen in the reactor, while OD600 is measured in the outflow. We further developed a CO2and pH sensor array that can be plugged into the outflow of the reactors. The system was used to characterize yeast physiology at four metabolically different conditions: limitations of glucose, both aerobic and anaerobic, nitrogen, and ethanol.
