Bioreactor Engineering

We use different types of bioreactors to grow and study fungal systems, including:

  • Up-flow reactors to grow fungal pellets (self-immobilize fungal growth with similar characteristics to biofilms).
  • Biofilm reactors, such as flow cell biofilm reactors, drip flow reactors, and membrane aerated biofilm reactors (MABR).

Up-flow fungal pelleted reactor

Up-flow fungal pelleted reactor

Flow-cell fungal biofim reactor

Flow-cell fungal biofim reactor

Membrane aerated biofilm reactor

Membrane aerated biofilm reactor. Labels -from top to bottom: (left pointing arrow) Effluent, Influent (right pointing arrow), Membrane, Inoculation Port

See related papers

Characterization of biofilms

Fungi imaged using SEM

Fungi imaged using SEM.

We use a combination of high-resolution imaging using confocal and scanning electron microscopy (SEM) for the structural and functional characterization of biofilms.

Filamentous fungi growing on an agar plate. Video acquired with OCT.

We also use optical coherence tomography (OCT) as a non-destructive tool to characterize the mesoscopic biofilm structure.

Fungi imaged using SEM.

Fungi imaged using SEM.

We study limiting factors and mechanisms of biofilm processes through the direct measurement of microscale gradients using microsensors.