BPE-32803 Marine Biotechnology

Course

Credits 3.00

Language of instruction:

English

Contents:

Marine biotechnology is involved in translating marine discoveries in real production processes. Marine (micro)organisms can be used for the production of new medicines (anti-cancer compounds from sponges), high value food ingredients (carotenoids and fatty acids from microalalgae) or even for renewable bulk chemicals and energy. The (micro)organisms used impose specific demands on the bioreactors and culture processes. For microalgae light is a very important substrate which has major consequences for the design and scale-up of photo bioreactors. This course aims to present on overview of the potential of marine (micro)organisms for biotechnology and to provide insight into the consequences of their specific features on the design and scale-up of production processes.

Learning outcomes:

After this course students are expected to be able to:
- summarize the characteristic features and bottlenecks of production processes based on marine (micro)organisms;
- recognize the differences and similarities of these production processes with those based on classical microbial fermentations;
- culture algae in lab-scale photobioreactors;
- present an overview of applications of marine biotechnology.

Activities:

Lectures and practicals.

Examination:

Written exam.

Literature:

Distributed at the start of the course.