Controlling biofilm: the new frontier of bioreactors

Bioreactors carry out biological or chemical processes in a biologically active environment. For years, they have proven to be a useful and promising form of technology. Scientists used some of the first large-scale bioreactors to mass produce penicillin. Today, bioreactors are used to treat sewage water, produce complex molecules (e.g. antibiotics or proteins) and grow human tissue. More importantly, researchers are hopeful that bioreactors will one day replace many chemical reactors (especially those used in the production of fossil fuels) and transform our economy. So are bioreactors the answer to our future?

Unfortunately, bioreactors do have a few flaws. Bioreactor stability is one of the most pressing. Bioreactors use living organisms to produce complex molecules. These organisms are susceptible to environmental stresses like pH levels, temperature and contamination. It is even possible for the organisms, usually bacteria, to mutate and ruin the intended product. When bioreactors begin to fail, it can lead to devastating consequences, as is currently occurring in a bioreactor in Kuna, Idaho. The bioreactor was being used to treat sewage water, but failed in what engineers are predicting to be a potential million dollar melt down [1].

Another problem related to stability is the regulation of bacteria. Before bioreactors can replace chemical reactors, scientists will need to learn how to regulate and manipulate the bacteria inside the reactor so they can control the bacteria’s proportions and time spent within the reactor. Without the ability to regulate the bacteria, the production of complex molecules will take longer, be more costly and be more difficult.

Luckily, researchers at Texas A&M published a paper on January 3 in Nature Communications that details how they were able to create and disperse colonies of bacteria within a bioreactor. When bacteria form a colony, known as biofilm, it offers the bacteria special protection. It can make the bacteria much harder to kill with antibiotics. It can also make bacteria more resistant to changes in temperature, pH levels and other environmental stresses [2].

Therefore, the researchers have potentially overcome two of the most important hurdles for bioreactors: reactor stability and regulation. The researchers were able to control the number of bacteria colonies and disperse the colonies at will.

The researchers at Texas A&M are hoping to use this ability to develop new bioreactors that have several strains of biofilm each producing their own set of molecules. This will turn one bioreactor into an assembly line, with each bacteria colony producing the required molecule needed by another bacteria colony. This should greatly reduce the time needed to produce complex molecules, like those used in fossil fuels, and make the production of these molecules much cheaper.

In fact, if this new development turns out to be fruitful, large-scale production facilities producing biofuels should be possible within the next few years. Moreover, with the ability to regulate and stabilize bioreactors, researchers could use bioreactors to replicate conditions in the human body or even grow tissue. The human body is a well-maintained bioreactor. It’s crazy to think, but, with the newfound ability to control bioreactors, scientists might be able to match the condition of the human body within a giant metal cylinder. These bioreactors could be used to test medications or grow tissue [3].

Of course, if scientists can replicate the human body and grow human tissue, scientists can replicate an animal body and grow animal tissue [4]. This could change the face of farming. If we can grow chicken meat or cow meat in a bioreactor, then we would have little use for the intensive animal farming methods currently used.

So will bioreactors be a large part of our future? Well, with the developments from Texas A&M, it seems certain that bioreactors will soon become a large part of our society. We might even be able to say goodbye to chemical fuel production facilities and farming as we know it, if bioreactors turn out to be as useful as some are currently suggesting.