Parallel bioreactor for probing CO2 driven microbial communities

Tender description

Background information on Project<br />The tender is being run to obtain a suitable continuous flow bioreactor system to support <br />an ambitious Strategic Longer and Larger grant (sLoLa) grant offered by UK Research <br />and Innovation (UKRI). The project “Rules of life in CO2-driven microbial communities:<br />Microbiome engineering for a Net Zero future”, led by Prof. Sophie Nixon, aims to <br />perform longitudinal multi-omics to measure, predict and engineer microbial community <br />function. The microbiomes targeted for this will be hot spring communities. The project <br />has been funded by BBSRC for five years.<br /><br />Project Overview<br />Longitudinal studies will aim to track the bioconversion of carbon dioxide (with <br />hydrogen) into value added metabolites and the composition of the microbial <br />community. Off-gas will be monitored for carbon dioxide utilisation, analytical methods <br />will be used to quantify secreted organic compounds in the medium, and DNA/RNA from <br />harvested biomass will be sequenced to reveal community composition/metabolic <br />potential. Multiple reactors (approximately eight) will be run in parallel to account for <br />replicate and control conditions. To sustain growth in these systems of the duration of <br />the experiment reactors will be run in continuous mode with constant additions of carbon <br />dioxide and hydrogen gas mix and liquid medium. The internal conditions of the vessels <br />will reflect the environment of the hot springs and so will be maintained up to 80°C. <br /><br />This is discovery research, we don’t know exactly what we will find as the project <br />progresses. We will be learning to culture communities of unidentified and new microbial <br />The University of Manchester Parallel bioreactor for probing CO2 driven microbial communities<br />strains, and our methodology will shift as we identify opportunities. For that reason, we <br />are seeking a flexible, adaptable bioreactor system which can maintain a constant <br />internal environment reliably with minimal user interference required.