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Study of robustness of filamentous bacteriophages for industrial applications
Author(s) -
Branston Steven,
Stanley Emma,
Ward John,
KeshavarzMoore Eli
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
biotechnology and bioengineering
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.136
H-Index - 189
eISSN - 1097-0290
pISSN - 0006-3592
DOI - 10.1002/bit.23066
Subject(s) - bioprocess , robustness (evolution) , biochemical engineering , bacteriophage , dissipation , process engineering , bacteriophage ms2 , computer science , biological system , biology , nanotechnology , materials science , engineering , chemical engineering , physics , biochemistry , escherichia coli , gene , thermodynamics
The development of a whole new class of industrial agents, such as biologically based nanomaterials and viral vectors, has raised many challenges for their large‐scale manufacture, principally due to the lack of essential physical data and bioprocessing knowledge. A new example is the promise of filamentous bacteriophages and their derivatives. As a result, there is now an increasing need for the establishment of strong biochemical engineering foundations to serve as a guide for future manufacture. This article investigates the effect of high‐energy fluid flow on filamentous bacteriophage M13 to determine its robustness for large‐scale processing. By the application of well‐understood ultra scale‐down predictive techniques, the viability of bacteriophage M13 was studied as a measure of its robustness and as a function of energy dissipation rate and fluid conditions. These experiments suggested that despite being perceived as a relatively fragile molecule in the literature, bacteriophage M13 should tolerate processing conditions in existing large‐scale equipment designs. No loss of viability was noted up to a maximum energy dissipation rate of 2.9 × 10 6 W kg −1 . Furthermore, significant losses above this threshold only occurred over periods well in excess of the exposure times expected in a bioprocess environment. Filamentous bacteriophages may therefore be regarded as a viable process material for industrial applications. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2011; 108:1468–1472. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.