2017/2018

2018/2019

DM270

CHIM/11 (CHEMISTRY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY OF FERMENTATIONS)

DEPARTMENT OF BIOLOGY AND BIOTECHNOLOGY "LAZZARO SPALLANZANI"

ADVANCED BIOTECHNOLOGY

PERCORSO COMUNE

2°

1st semester (01/10/2018 - 14/01/2019)

6

48 lesson hours

Italian

ORAL TEST

UBIALI DANIELA (titolare) - 3 ECTS
SELVA ENRICO - 3 ECTS

The student should possess a solid background in the disciplines of the I year classes

Introducing the students to approaches, problems and trade-off situations typical of industrial workplaces in biotechnology. Provide the students with the tools and knowledge necessary to analyze and develop an industrial research project in the biotech area.

The course aims at introducing the students to approaches typical of the biotech industry by examining industrial cases of research and development of bioactive molecules.
Starting from a case-study of a known antibiotic, the interdisciplinary and complex discovery process of bioactive molecules produced by microorganisms will be examined. The process development for the supply of a bioactive microbial product will be then presented by examining fermentation, down processing and strain development. The multiple interactions of these approaches will be discussed, along with the issues of process management, industrial organization and team working.
Some case-studies of process development for the synthesis of APIs (Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients) by biocatalysis will be presented. Advantages and disadvantages of using isolated enzymes as biocatalysts in organic chemistry will be discussed, with a focus on the most used enzymes in industry (hydrolases, transferases, oxidoreductases). The pipeline of the development of a biocatalytic process will cover the selection of the enzyme, the “transformation” of the selected enzyme into a biocatalyst active and stable under the operative conditions dictated by the specific industrial process, the enzymatic reaction set up, the scale-up of the biotransformation and the product downstream.
The product development process will be subsequently examined in view of regulatory requirements and emerging medical needs. Cases of anti-infective drugs will be examined, from the development stage to their therapeutic use. The life-cycle of a drug and the business models of Big Pharma and Biotech companies will be also discussed.
Case-studies and situations will be presented during the course to stimulate class discussions about approaches, issues and decision processes typical of the industrial environment.

Lectures. Seminars of experts from research centres and chemical companies will be also given. Simulations of industrial cases and problems will be run during the course and the impact assessment of the solutions proposed by the students will be analyzed. Real-life cases from different industrial backgrounds which reflect different process/product development stages will be proposed. A particular emphasis will be given to the multidisciplinary approach required by a biotech process developed to obtain new bioactive molecules or APIs, either by fermentation or by biocatalysis.

Slides used during lectures and papers (provided as pdf files, also available in the Kiro website).
K. Faber “Biotransformations in Organic Chemistry – A textbook” Springer Ed.

Oral exam

None