Mini-bioreactors

Eugenio Cinquemani, Hans Geiselmann, Hidde de Jong, Noël Scaramozzino, Soraya Arias, Ludovic Léau-Mercier

Automation of biological experiments is pursued by top-notch laboratories worldwide in the interest of experimental reproducibility and throughput, and to relieve laboratory operators from daunting tasks. In collaboration with the Inria centers of UGA and of Université Côte d’Azur, we have developed a computer-operated, extensible mini-bioreactor platform for the parallel execution of customizable monitoring and reactive control experiments on microbial cultures. The platform comprises several measurement instruments (spectrometers, cytometer, and more to come), and a thermostated incubator, hosting up to 10 growth tubes of 20 mL, and equipped with LEDs for optogenetics. A microfluidic system enables the routing of samples from the bioreactors to the measurement system, and it regulates input-output bioreactor flows. Software developed in-house operates the platform and allows for the design and automated execution of several experiments in parallel. The platform is operational and under further development.