Food Technology and Nutrition Center of Excellence

Fermentation

The Minifors 2 is a compact and easy-to-use bioreactor with a full range of applications. It allows easy and continuous culture of microorganisms such as Escherichia coli, Saccheromyces cerevisiae and various Lactobacilli.  Fermentation can be carried out under oxygen supply (aerobic) or in the absence of air (anaerobic). The biotic raw material is modified by microbial as well as autolytic enzymatic processes.

Technical Data: 3.0 L total volume with rounded, flat bottom | stirrer speed from 150 to 1600 min-1 | two 6-blade disc stirrers (Rushton) | 2 integrated mass flow controllers for air, air/O2 or air/N2 (for culture of microorganisms) | temperature control via exchangeable heating/cooling block | acquisition of online parameters

R&D Services
  • Toxicity (DART assay, Lifespan assay, LD50 values).
  • Gene expression analyses and next generation sequencing (NGS)
  • Fluorescence reporter genes for substance characterization
  • Model system for heat stress and oxidative stress (ROS)
  • Lipid accumulation

Microbiome Sequencing

Microbial profiling using 16S ribosomal RNA (rRNA) sequencing is a common method for studying bacterial phylogeny and taxonomy. The 16S rRNA gene is the most established genetic marker used for bacterial identification and classification, primarily because it consists of both highly conserved and hypervariable regions. The conserved regions can serve as universal primer binding sites for amplification of the entire gene or fragments of the gene, while the hypervariable regions contain species-specific sequences that can distinguish between different bacteria and archaea. Similarly, the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region is used for taxonomic profiling of fungi. 

Microbiome Sequencing in cooperation with corporate partners.

 

R&D Services
  • Characterization of non-culturable bacteria
  • Profiling of hundreds of microorganisms from a single analysis
  • Semi-quantification of the relative abundance of members of the microbiome
  • Investigation of complex microbiomes 
  • Faster and more accurate classification than traditional identification methods 
  • Multiplexing of microbial samples for more cost-effective characterization of the microbiome
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