Matthias Pesch

Co-cultures offer immense potential in biotechnology. In industrial applications, these dynamic microbial collaborations prove pivotal for biofuel production, pharmaceutical synthesis, or environmental remediation. Here, a synthetic co-culture based on two amino acid auxotrophic Corynebacterium glutamicum cultures, coined CoNoS (Communities of Niche-optimized Strains) is further characterized. This organism has been extensively studied in the past and used for large-scale industrial production of amino acids. Microfluidics revolutionizes biotechnology by enabling precise manipulation of small fluid volumes. It enhances experimental control, and facilitates high-throughput analyses, crucial for single-cell studies. The aim of the project, named SiMBal 2.0, is to investigate the influence of different microbial interaction parameters (MIP) on defined microbial performance indicators (MPI) of the CoNoS with the help of microfluidics. At FZ Jülich, the microfluidic batch chip will be used to determine growth rates and biomass yields. The microfluidic batch chip is a relatively complex microfluidic structure, which will be optimized by trying out different designs and validating them with practical approaches as well as CFD models.