Microbioreactors

Abstract

Recent advances in micro‐ and nanotechnologies coupled with the need in biology and medicine to perform cellular scale studies and productions have led to the emergence of a variety of microscale biological reaction systems. These microbioreactors are promising as low cost modules for optimizing bioproduction processes, highly parallel analytical platforms for screening pharmaceutical drugs, therapeutic implements for treating disorders and deficiencies, and examination tools for exploring basic physiological responses and biological reactions. This article summarizes the basic concepts, designs, and applications of microbioreactors with a special focus on medical, pharmaceutical, and cell biological applications. Important concepts include scaling laws and how the small size of the microbioreactors affects fluid flow, mixing, mass transport, heat transfer, and sterilization. Examples of specific microbioreactors for fermentation, drug toxicity screening, drug administration, assisted reproduction, and basic cell biological and physiological studies are also discussed. Microscale phenomena provide both a challenge and an opportunity for the development of microbioreactors.

Microfluidic Bioreactors for Cell Culturing: A Review

“…More recently, fluorescent nanoparticles have been used as labels for cell based assays. Fluorescent quantum dots nanomaterials are useful probes for many types of cell labeling in that they can be used for measuring cell viability by fluorescence techniques [26]. However, some studies have demonstrated that nanomaterials induce stress responses in some mammalian cells.…”

“…The absence of moving parts, lower complexity and fabrication costs as well as being less prone to breakdown due to fatigue are considered as the key advantages of using passive microvalves in microfluidic application [26]. These types of microvalves restrict the flow of fluids in a single direction and can take the form of polymer based check valves, passive valves based on surface tension and hydrogel based biomimetic valves [115].…”

“…A key requirement for microbioreactors is the ability to measure process parameters such as optical density (OD), pH, and dissolved oxygen (DO) and flow rate data in real time [26]. The basic metabolic processes occurring within cells are determined by physicochemical variables which in turn determine the by-products that are produced during cel-lular growth.…”

“…Photolithography offers advantages of high precision, reproducibility and potential for large volume production with reduced cost [26]. In photolithography, a photosensitive resist on a substrate is used to transfer geometric designs/pattern from a mask to the surface of a photosensitive substrate.…”

“…Zhu et al [26] has described developments in microbioreactors up until 2005, covering aspects of designs, operation and application. Most of the research has focused on applications in: (i) microbial bioprocessing [27][28] (ii) stem cells [29][30] (iii) single cells [31] (iv) drug development [32] and (v) cytotoxicity [33].…”