Entry requirements

A Bachelor's degree of at least 180 credits, including 30 credits in chemistry, and 30 credits in biology or biotechnology. Proficiency in English equivalent to the Swedish upper secondary course English 6.

Learning outcomes

The aim of the course is for students to acquire knowledge of the preconditions, limitations and challenges that characterise bioprocess projects, that is, how biological molecules are produced, purified and analysed in an industrial setting.

After completing the course, students should be able to:

• summarise, explain and critically evaluate the choice of prokaryotic and eukaryotic expression systems in the design of bioprocess projects
• describe and explain principles of selected bioprocess techniques and report the methods' advantages and disadvantages with regard to time and resource availability
• independently plan and justify the design of a bioprocess experiment
• describe at a general level regulatory aspects and quality systems relevant for industrial bioprocess work
• explain and evaluate biosafety and environmental consequences of bioprocess experiments

Content

The course deals with the planning of industrial production of various types of biological molecules, e.g. antibodies and enzymes. Important aspects of the planning and implementation of industrial bioprocesses are presented and discussed in lectures and seminars. Pilot experiments and scale-up. Different types of cultivation/fermentation (batch, fed-batch, continuous growth). Productivity and process output. Choice of instrumentation and analytical methods in bioprocesses. Environmental safety and development of sustainable methods in bioprocesses.

Instruction

Lectures, seminars, study visit and an individual theoretical project.

Assessment

Active participation in seminars with associated lectures (2 credits); individual theoretical project presented in written form (1 credit).

If there are special reasons for doing so, an examiner may make an exception from the method of assessment indicated and allow a student to be assessed by another method. An example of special reasons might be a certificate regarding special pedagogical support from the university's disability coordinator.

Other regulations

This course can be read separately or together with the following courses: Experimental Industrial Bioprocess II - Cultivation and Harvest 2 credits. Experimental Industrial Bioprocess III - Analysis and Evaluation of Results 2 credits.