Team Members
Denisse Pena-Valerio, Iratxe Astigarraga, Garrett Doty, Salomon Molko, Vidal Cruz Ramos, John Plunkett, Jack Drohan, Vitan Georgievski
Abstract
The Doctor Clean Bioreactor grows bacteria cultures with little to no additional work to the user. The sanitation system incorporated in the bioreactor will be able to safely dispose of culture materials and sanitize the equipment used, making the system ready for the next experiment. The well plates and conical tubes, still filled with cell culture media, are placed into a sanitation chamber that will cull the cell cultures and dispose of solid and liquid waste, leaving sanitized well plates and tubes for future use. The Dr. Clean Bioreactor uses a manipulator system to interact with the cell cultures and other system features, including a fluid handling system capable of providing nutrients to cultures, a shaker system capable of linear, orbital, and double orbital motions to aerate cultures, and a climate-controlledstoragesystem. Optical density and fluorescent intensity measurements will be taken frequently to monitor cell growth within the enclosure. The assembly can maintain consistent temperature within the interior to protect electrical components as well as a reasonable temperature on the exterior to allow for movement of the overall system within a laboratory environment. The Doctor Clean Bioreactor was designed for parameters set by the UF Biofoundry and to fulfill customer needs metrics outlined by industry experts. Prioritization of meeting these needs and outperforming previous iterations of bioreactor designs is critical to design evaluation and future performance in the final down-selection stages of the project.