Course: Applied Microbiology credits: 5

Course code
BOVH25AMICROBIO
Name
Applied Microbiology
Study year
2025-2026
ECTS credits
5
Language
English
Coordinator
F. Faber
Modes of delivery
  • Assignment
  • Lecture
  • Tutorial
Assessments
  • Bioprocess Engineering - Written, organised by STAD examinations
  • Genetic Engineering - Other assessment

Learning outcomes

Module learning outcomes: 

  • You can acknowledge the importance of various microbial metabolic pathways in relation to energy conversion and conservation processes. 

  • You can use the model-based concept of microbial cell growth to explain and calculate the limiting use of nutrients, the formation of biomass and products in various types of bioreactors (e.g. batch vs. continuous cultures). 

  • You can explain and apply knowledge on various metabolic pathways to industrial processes such as the production of biogas (anaerobic digestion), biohydrogen (dark fermentation vs photo-fermentation), bioremediation (heavy metals, aromatic compounds and chlorinated compounds) and mineral recovery and acid mine drainage.   

  • You can calculate energy yields and product yields of the various processes discussed above. 

  • You can describe the concept of prokaryotic cell factories to produce recombinant proteins or metabolites.  

  • You can translate a research question regarding the production and purification of recombinant proteins in micro-organisms into a DNA cloning strategy. 

  • You can draw up a Plan of Approach (PvA) according to the guidelines provided, in which well-considered choices are made in isolating the gene, plasmids for protein expression and the method of protein purification (downstream processing). 

Content

Within biotechnology microorganisms can be applied in a wide variety of processes, such as the production of (recombinant) proteins or metabolites, but also industrial processes such as the production of biogas (anaerobic digestion), biohydrogen (dark fermentation vs photo-fermentation), bioremediation (heavy metals, aromatic compounds and chlorinated compounds) and mineral recovery and acid mine drainage.  

To effectively use microorganisms for this, you can adjust the environmental conditions in such a way that the carry out the desired processes. For this, a detailed understanding of the diversity of microbial metabolism is needed, but also an understanding of modelling of growth in both batch cultures and continuous cultures. Once the concept of energy-conversion and the modelling of growth is clear, it will be applied in various biotechnological processes. This includes (A) biogas production (anaerobic digestion) in which you learn to calculate the yield of biogas from various types of biomass, (B) biohydrogen production, in which two different types of bioreactors are involved, (C) photosynthetic biomass production, in which you learn the calculate the yield of algal biomass based on the amount of sunlight and (D) bioremediation, predominantly linked to sulphate reducing bacteria or sulphide oxidising bacteria. 

Another way to effectively used microorganisms is the reconstruction of their genetic makeup in such a way that they also could produce the desired product. The most widely used method for protein expression is to incorporate the gene of interest into a protein expression vector. Protein expression vectors contain sequences necessary for gene transcription and translation, such as promoters, terminators, and translation initiation signals. This supplies a toolbox to construct protein expression vectors for the production of recombinant proteins (e.g., enzymes, hormones, etc). After production of recombinant proteins there is a need for protein purification strategies, which will be part of this module. 

Included in programme(s)

School(s)

  • Institute for Life Science & Technology
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