The three-dimensional (3D) cultivation of intestinal cells and tissues in dynamic bioreactor systems to represent in vivo intestinal microenvironments is essential for developing regenerative medicine treatments for intestinal diseases. We have previously developed in vitro human intestinal tissue systems using a 3D porous silk scaffold system with intestinal architectures and topographical fea...

In order to study the performance and mechanisms of excess sludge reduction in the activated sludge that incorporates the Cannibal Process, laboratory activated sludge systems incorporating an anaerobic bioreactor into the sludge recycle stream were operated. In this study, the solids production in the Cannibal system was about 35-40% of the conventional system under steady state conditions. Th...

Tissue engineering and, more broadly, regenerative medicine is moving into a phase where we are seeing potential therapies moving 'slowly but surely' from the laboratory into the clinic, i.e., from research to the clinic and into manufacturing. The numbers of cells required for cell therapy protocols can vary from tens of millions, to billions [1], and it is widely considered that such cell num...

This thesis focuses on the design and characterisation of miniature bioreactors and evaluates their potential as a scale-down device for microbial cultivation processes. Miniature bioreactors, such as the one detailed in this work, have been developed by many research groups and companies, and seek to increase throughput at the early stages of bioprocess development. Power input was measured in...

A fluidized bed bioreactor containing encapsulated hepatocytes may be a valuable alternative to a hollow fiber bioreactor for achieving the improved mass transfer and scale-up potential necessary for clinical use. However, a conventional fluidized bed bioreactor (FBB) operating under high perfusion velocity is incapable of providing the desired performance due to the resulting damage to cell-co...

A sensitive DNA isothermal amplification method for the detection of DNA at fM to aM concentrations for pathogen identification was developed using a non-stick-coated metal microfluidic bioreactor. A portable confocal optical detector was utilized to monitor the DNA amplification in micro- to nanoliter reaction assays in real-time, with fluorescence collection near the optical diffraction limit...

An adapted bioactive foamed emulsion bioreactor for the treatment of benzene vapor has been developed. In this reactor, bed clogging was resolved by bioactive foam as a substitute of packing bed for interfacial contact of liquid to gaseous phase. The pollutant solubility has been increased using biocompatible organic phase in liquid phase and this reactor can be applied for higher inlet benzene...

Distilleries produce vast amounts of contaminated effluents which if disposed to the water bodies will pose environmental problems hence need to treat this effluent. A membrane bioreactor with Pseudomonas fluorescens as a decolorizing micro-organism was employed for treatment of distillery effluent over 10 days. The effluent pH changed from being acidic (4.2-5.0) to neutral (7.3-8.0). The efflu...

This study investigated the effects of salinity increase on bacterial community structure in a membrane bioreactor (MBR) for wastewater treatment. The influent salt loading was increased gradually to simulate salinity build-up in the bioreactor during the operation of a high retention-membrane bioreactor (HR-MBR). Bacterial community diversity and structure were analyzed using 454 pyrosequencin...