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Project Goals

In this project, we aim to make significant advancements in the way bioreactors work, especially when dealing with the common issue of bacteria getting too crowded. Our focus is on making sure that bacteria in these reactors can get enough nutrients, particularly glucose, even when they are packed tightly together. Here’s a breakdown of what we plan to achieve:

Making Better Bacteria Growth Models​

  • Goal: Improve the existing models that predict how bacteria behave and grow. Right now, these models don't always account for what happens when bacteria get too crowded, like in overflow metabolism seen in certain types of bacteria like E. coli. We want to make these models more accurate for situations where bacteria are densely packed.

Tackling the Crowding Issue in Bioreactors​

  • Problem: When too many bacteria grow close together, they struggle to get the nutrients they need because they run out of room. This affects their growth and the amount of useful stuff they can produce, like medicines or biofuels.

  • Solution: We plan to use advanced calculations to better understand how bacteria take up nutrients when they're crowded. Our approach will look at how the shape and surface area of bacteria affect their ability to get nutrients.

Our Plan of Action​

  1. Adding New Mathematical Features: We're going to add new mathematical parts to our existing bacteria growth models. This will help us show the relationship between how much nutrients the bacteria get and how they grow.

  2. Breaking Down Complex Equations: We'll break down a modified Michealis-Menten equation into smaller parts. This will help us predict how fast bacteria can take up nutrients in a more optimized fashion.

  3. Investigating Nutrient Levels in Crowded Situations: We'll look into how much glucose is available to bacteria when they're really packed together.

  4. Simulating Crowded Bacteria Conditions: Finally, we'll use our improved models to mimic what happens in a bioreactor when it's full of bacteria, focusing on how this affects glucose uptake and the overall process efficiency.

Our project is all about making bioreactors work better, especially when dealing with the tricky situation of having too many bacteria in one space. We hope our work will lead to better ways of producing useful products from bacteria in a more efficient way.