Chemical Engineering Commons^™

Ranque–Hilsch Vortex Tube Thermocycler For Fast Dna Amplification And Real-Time Optical Detection, Ryan J. Ebmeier, Scott E. Whitney, Amitabha Sarkar, Michael Nelson, Nisha Padhye, George Gogos, Hendrik J. Viljoen

Papers in Biochemical Engineering

An innovative polymerase chain reaction (PCR) thermocycler capable of performing real-time optical detection is described below. This device utilizes the Ranque–Hilsch vortex tube in a system to efficiently and rapidly cycle three 20 mL samples between the denaturation, annealing, and elon-gation temperatures. The reaction progress is displayed real-time by measuring the size of a fluo-rescent signal emitted by SYBR green/double-stranded DNA complexes. This device can produce significant reaction yields with very small amounts of initial DNA, for example, it can amplify 0.25 fg (,5 copies) of a 96 bp bacteriophage l-DNA fragment 2.731011-fold by performing 45 cycles in less than …

Causes Of Proteolytic Degradation Of Secreted Recombinant Proteins Produced In Ethylotrophic Yeast Pichia Pastoris: Case Study With Recombinant Ovine Interferon-T, Jayanta Sinha, Bradley A. Plantz, Mehmet Inan, Michael Meagher

Papers in Biotechnology

It was observed that during fermentative production of recombinant ovine interferon-H (r-oIFN-H ) in Pichia pastoris, a secreted recombinant protein, the protein was degraded increasingly after 48 h of induction and the rate of degradation increased towards the end of fermentation at 72 h, when the fermentation was stopped. Proteases, whose primary source was the vacuoles, was found in in-creasing levels in the cytoplasm and in the fermentation broth after 48 h of induction and reached maximal values when the batch was completed at 72 h. Protease levels at various cell fractions as well as in the culture supernatant were …

Biomimetic Actuators: Where Technology And Cell Biology Merge [Review Article], Michael Knoblauch, Winfried Peters

Winfried S. Peters

Exergy Use In Bioenergetics, Yaşar Demirel

Papers in Analytical Chemistry

Every developed and adapted biological system extracts useful energy from outside, converts, stores it, and uses for muscular contraction, substrate transport, protein synthesis, and other energy utilizing processes. This energy management in a living cell is called the bioenergetics, and the useful energy is the exergy, which is destroyed in every irreversible process because of the entropy production. The converted exergy is the adenosine triphosphate (ATP) produced through the oxidative phosphorylation coupled to respiration in which the exergy originates from oxidation of reducing equivalents of nutrients. A living cell uses the ATP for all the energy demanding activities; it has …

Optimization Of Batch Reactions In Series With Uncertainty, Keith G. Tomazi

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Certain types of chemical reactions, such as the global deprotection of a polypeptide, are extremely complex. As a result, it may be very difficult or expensive to develop accurate models of these chemical reactions. Without a satisfactory kinetic model for the reaction, it is difficult to develop an optimum operating policy that will maximize the profit. Stochastic optimization is applied in this work to an example process step to obtain the optimum reaction temperature and reaction time. In the case of the "here and now" problem, the optimal conditions are a lower reaction temperature and a longer reaction time than …

Liquid Holdup And Pressure Drop In The Gas-Liquid Cocurrent Downflow Packed-Bed Reactor Under Elevated Pressures, Jing Guo, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

An Experimental Investigation of the Residence Time Distribution, Liquid Holdup, and Pressure Drop in a Gas-Liquid Downflow Packed Bed Reactor with Porous Particles Operated under Elevated Pressures is Presented. the Effects of the Two-Phase Flow Rates and Reactor Pressures on the External Liquid Holdup and Pressure Drop Are Discussed. a Mechanistic Model, Which Accounts for the Interaction between the Gas and Liquid Phases by Incorporating the Shear and Velocity Slip Factors between Phases, is Employed to Predict the External Liquid Holdup and Pressure Drop for the Experimentally Covered Flow Regime. the Involved Parameters, Such as Shear and Velocity Slip Factors …

Monoliths As Multiphase Reactors: A Review, Shaibal Roy, Tobias Bauer, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan, Peter Lehner, Thomas Turek

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Monolith Reactors Are Being Studied as a Replacement for Conventional Multiphase Reactors Such as Trickle-Bed Reactors, Slurry Reactors, and Slurry Bubble Column Reactors for Gas-Liquid-Solid Reactions. Reactors with Monolith Catalyst Packing Have Been Found to Be Hydrodynamically Superior to Existing Industrial Reactors. This Review Covers Multiphase Reactions Carried Out in Monolith Reactors by Various Researchers. It First Defines the Monolith Reactor and Looks into the Geometrical Aspects of Monolith. the Section Dealing with Hydrodynamics Reviews Pressure Drop, Phase Holdup, Flow Distribution, and Dispersion Characteristics. This Study Also Considers the Tools Used to Characterize the Hydrodynamic Parameters and their Typical Values. …

Quantification Of Solids Flow In A Gas-Solid Riser: Single Radioactive Particle Tracking, Satish Bhusarapu, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan, Milorad P. Dudukovic

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Solids in Risers of Circulating Fluidized Beds (CFB) Exhibit Local Backflow and Recirculation. Measurement of the Concentration-Time Response to an Impulse Injection of Tracer, Even at Two Elevations Cannot Determine the Residence Time Distribution (RTD) of Solids Uniquely. Hence, Evaluation of RTD in Risers from Conventional Tracer Responses is Difficult and Often Not Possible. in Addition, Estimating the Solids Circulation Rate in These Closed Loop Systems, is a Non-Trivial Problem. in This Work, a Single Radioactive Particle in the CFB Loop is Tracked during its Multiple Visits to the Riser And, by Invoking Ergodicity, Solids Circulation Rate, Accurate Solids RTD …

Haemophilic Factors Produced By Transgenic Livestock: Abundance That Can Enable Alternative Therapies Worldwide, Kevin E. Van Cott, Paul E. Monahan, Timothy C. Nichols, William H. Velander

Papers in Biotechnology

Haemophilia replacement factors, both plasma-derived and recombinant, are in relatively short supply and are high-cost products. This has stymied the study and development of alternative methods of administration of haemophilia therapy even in the most economically advanced countries, owing to the large amounts of material needed because bioabsorption and bioavailability of haemophilic factors can be less than 10% when using non-intravenous routes of delivery. There is therefore a need to increase access to therapy worldwide by decreasing the cost and increasing the abundance so that therapy can be achieved through simplified, alternative delivery methods. Transgenic livestock have been used to …

Production And Purification Of A Chimeric Monoclonal Antibody Against Botulinum Neurotoxin Serotype A , Mark C. Mowry, Michael Meagher Lead Investigator, Leonard Smith, Anuradha Subramanian

Papers in Biotechnology

Production of recombinant antibodies against botulinum neurotoxin is necessary for the development of a post-exposure treatment. CHO-DG44 cells were transfected with a plasmid encoding the light and heavy chains of a chimeric monoclonal antibody (S25) against botulism neurotoxin serotype A. Stable cell lines were obtained by dilution cloning and clones were shown to produce nearly equivalent levels of light and heavy chain antibody by an enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). In suspension culture, cells produced 35 μg/ml of chimeric antibody after 6 days, corresponding to a specific antibody productivity of 3.1 pg/cell/day. A method for the harvest and recovery of an …

Determining Suitability Of A Fly Ash For Silica Extraction And Zeolite Synthesis, Natàlia Moreno, Xavier Querol, Angel López-Soler, José Manuel Andres, Maria Janssen, Henk Nugteren, Mark R. Towler, Kenneth Stanton

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Zeolitic material is obtained from fly ash both by direct conversion of the ash or from SiO₂ extracts obtained from fly ash. This study focuses on determining the suitability of a fly ash for SiO₂ extraction and for zeolite synthesis by direct conversion. The SiO₂ extraction experiments from different fly ashes show that the main parameters governing the SiO₂ extraction are: (a) a high bulk SiO₂ content (> 52%, for obtaining an extraction yield of 100 g SiO₂ kg-1) in the starting fly ash, (b) a high proportion (> 55%) of the bulk SiO …

Investigation Into The Ultrasonic Setting Of Glass Ionomer Cements : Part Ii Setting Times And Compressive Strengths, E. Twomey, Mark R. Towler, C. M. Crowley, J. Doyle, S. Hampshire

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

The ultrasonic setting of glass ionomer cements (GIC) was discussed. It was observed that the ultrasonic setting resulted in improvements of compressive strength. An increase in the PAA molecular weight from PAA50 to PAA200 resulted in an increase in the strength, but with a further increase in the PAA molecular weight to PAA450, there was a reduction in the strength. Results show that the strength of the ultrasonically set materials after 1 day were close to the values for the 7 days chemically set samples.

Optimization Of Cell Density And Dilution Rate In Pichia Pastoris Continuous Fermentations For Production Of Recombinant Proteins, Mehmet Inan, Michael M. Meagher, Wenhui Zhang, Chih Ping Liu

Papers in Biomolecular Engineering

This paper provides an approach for optimizing the cell density (Xc) and dilution rate (D) in a chemostat for a Pichia pastoris continuous fermentation for the extracellular production of a recombinant protein, interferon τ (INF-τ). The objective was to maximize the volumetric productivity (Q, mg INF-τ I-1 h-1), which was accomplished using response surface methodology (RSM) to model the response of Q as a function of Xc and D within the ranges 150 ≤ Xc ≤ 450 g cells (wet weight) l-1 and 0.1 μm ≤D ≤ 0.9 μm (μm =0.0678 h-1, the maximum specific growth rate obtained from a …

The Influence Of Strontium Substitution In Fluorapatite Glasses And Glass-Ceramics, R. G. Hill, A. Stamboulis, R. V. Law, A. Clifford, Mark R. Towler, C. Crowley

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Strontium is often substituted for calcium in order to confer radio-opacity in glasses used for dental cements, Biocomposites and bio glass-ceramics. The present paper investigates the influence of substituting strontium for calcium in a glass of the following composition: 4.5SiO₂3Al₂O ₃1.5P₂O₅3CaO2CaF₂, having a Ca:P ratio of 1.67 corresponding to calcium fluorapatite (Ca5(PO 4)3F). The glasses were characterized by magic angle spinning nuclear magnetic resonance (MAS-NMR), by differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) and X-ray powder diffraction (XRD). The ²⁹Si, ²⁷Al and ³¹P NMR spectra for the glasses with …

Growth And Transport Properties Of Complementary Germanium Nanowire Field Effect Transistors, Andrew B. Greytak, Lincoln J. Lauhon, Mark S. Gudiksen, Charles M. Lieber

Faculty Publications

n- and p-type Ge nanowires were synthesized by a multistep process in which axial elongation, via vapor–liquid–solid (VLS) growth, and doping were accomplished in separate chemical vapor deposition steps. Intrinsic, single-crystal, Ge nanowires prepared by Au nanocluster-mediated VLS growth were surface-doped in situ using diborane or phosphine, and then radial growth of an epitaxial Ge shell was used to cap the dopant layer. Field-effect transistors prepared from these Ge nanowires exhibited on currents and transconductances up to 850 µA/µm and 4.9 µA/V, respectively, with device yields of >85%.

Feasibility Of Using The Least Square Deconvolution Approach To Resolve Three-Person Str Dna Mixture Samples, Christopher David Lucas

Masters Theses

The feasibility of using the least-square solution method to resolve three-person mixtures of short tandem repeat deoxyribonucleic acid (STR DNA) was explored in this work. Such three-person mixtures can occur in gang rapes and other violent crimes and there is currently no suitable method for resolving these mixtures. The method evaluated in this work was named LSD-3. Simulations were conducted using the MATLAB software package to evaluate the sensitivity of correct resolution to signal perturbations as a function of the relative mass ratios of the mixture contributors. Three enhancements to the LSD-3 method were investigated; locus concatenation, reference profile incorporation, …

Characterisation Of The Glass Fraction Of A Selection Of European Coal Fly Ashes, J. Henry, Mark R. Towler, K. T. Stanton, X. Querol, N. Moreno

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Fly ash largely consists of the inorganic content of coal that remains after combustion. The crystalline phases present in fly ash may form upon cooling of a molten alumino-silicate glass. This view is supported by the spherical shape of many fly ash particles, inferring that they have gone through a viscous fluid state. The amorphous content in fly ash is believed to dominate reactivity behaviour, under both alkaline and acid conditions, because glasses have a higher potential energy than the equivalent crystal structure and the variation of bond angles and distances in a glass makes the bond breakage easier. It …

A Sequential Approach To Modeling Catalytic Reactions In Packed-Bed Reactors, Jing Guo, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

A Sequential Modeling Approach is Proposed to Simulate Catalytic Reactions in Packed-Bed Reactors. the Hydrogenation of Alpha-Methylstyrene and Wet Oxidation of Phenol Are Selected as Studied Cases. the Modeling Scheme Combines a Reactor Scale Axial Dispersion Model with a Pellet Scale Model. Without Involving Any Fitting Parameters, Such an Approach Accounts for the Non-Linear Reaction Kinetics Expression and Different Types of Pellet-Liquid Wetting Contact. to Validate the Developed Modeling Scheme and the Parallel Approach Reported in the Literature, the Experimental Observations for Hydrogenation of Alpha-Methylstyrene to Cumene Have Been Employed. the Predicted Results by Both Approaches Agree Reasonably with the …

Causes Of Proteolytic Degradation Of Secreted Recombinant Proteins Produced In Methylotrophic Yeast Pichia Pastoris: Case Study With Recombinant Ovine Interferon-T, Mehmet Inan, Michael M. Meagher, Bradley A. Plantz, Jayanta Sinha

Papers in Biochemical Engineering

It was observed that during fermentative production of recombinant ovine interferon-H (r-oIFN-H ) in Pichia pastoris, a secreted recombinant protein, the protein was degraded increasingly after 48 h of induction and the rate of degradation increased towards the end of fermentation at 72 h, when the fermentation was stopped. Proteases, whose primary source was the vacuoles, was found in increasing levels in the cytoplasm and in the fermentation broth after 48 h of induction and reached maximal values when the batch was completed at 72 h. Protease levels at various cell fractions as well as in the culture supernatant were …

Analyzing And Modeling Of Photobioreactors By Combining First Principles Of Physiology And Hydrodynamics, Hu Ping Luo, Muthanna H. Al-Dahhan

Chemical and Biochemical Engineering Faculty Research & Creative Works

Mixing in Photobioreactors is Known to Enhance Biomass Productivity Considerably, and Flow Dynamics Play a Significant Role in the Reactor's Performance, as They Determine the Mixing and the Cells' Movement. in This Work We Focus on Analyzing the Effects of Mixing and Flow Dynamics on the Photobioreactor Performance. based on Hydrodynamic Findings from the CARPT(Computer Automated Radioactive Particle Tracking) Technique, a Possible Mechanism for the Interaction between the Mixing and the Physiology of Photosynthesis is Presented, and the Effects of Flow Dynamics on Light Availability and Light Intensity Fluctuation Are Discussed and Quantitatively Characterized. Furthermore, a Dynamic Modeling Approach is …

Rational Pathway Engineering Of Type I Fatty Acid Synthase Allows The Biosynthesis Of Triacetic Acid Lactone From D-Glucose In Vivo, Wenjuan Zha, Zengyi Shao, John W. Frost, Huimin Zhao

Zengyi Shao

Metabolic pathway engineering is a powerful tool to synthesize structurally diverse and complex chemicals via genetic manipulation of multistep catalytic systems involved in cell metabolism. Here, we report the rational design of a fatty acid biosynthetic pathway, Brevibacterium ammoniagenes fatty acid synthase B (FAS-B), that allows the microbial synthesis of triacetic acid lactone (TAL) from an inexpensive feedstock, D-glucose. TAL can be chemically converted to phloroglucinol, which is a core structure for the synthesis of various high value bioactive compounds and energetic compounds such as 1,3,5-triamino-2,4,6-trinitrobenzene (TATB). Synthesis of phloroglucinol from d-glucose using this combined biological and chemical synthesis may …

Spatial Analysis Of 3′ Phosphoinositide Signaling In Living Fibroblasts: Ii. Parameter Estimates For Individual Cells From Experiments, Ian C. Schneider, Jason M. Haugh

Ian C. Schneider

Fibroblast migration is directed by gradients of platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) during wound healing. As in other chemotactic systems, it has been shown recently that localized stimulation of intracellular phosphoinositide (PI) 3-kinase activity and production of 3′ PI lipids in the plasma membrane are important events in the signaling of spatially biased motility processes. In turn, 3′ PI localization depends on the effective diffusion coefficient, D, and turnover rate constant, k, of these lipids. Here we present a systematic and direct comparison of mathematical model calculations and experimental measurements to estimate the values of the effective 3′ PI diffusion coefficient, …

Retention And Viability Characteristics Of Mammalian Cells In An Acoustically Driven Polymer Mesh, Zhaowei Wang, Paul Grabenstetter, Donald L. Feke, Joanne M. Belovich

Chemical & Biomedical Engineering Faculty Publications

A processing approach for the collection and retention of mammalian cells within a high porosity polyester mesh having millimeter-sized pores has been studied. Cell retention occurs via energizing the mesh with a low intensity, resonant acoustic field. The resulting acoustic field induces the interaction of cells with elements of the mesh or with each other and effectively prevents the entrainment of cells in the effluent stream. Experiments involving aqueous suspensions of polystyrene particles were used to provide benchmark data on the performance of the acoustic retention cell. Experiments using mouse hybridoma cells showed that retention densities of over 1.5 × …

Exergy Use In Bioenergetics, Yasar Demirel

YASAR DEMIREL

The energy management in a living cell is studied.