Teaching biomanufacturing online? A collection of virtually most of what you need

Biotech instructors across the US have been stepping up to help out their colleagues and share materials for teaching concepts in biomanufacturing.  While we all acknowledge that working with virtual tools is not the same as working with our own bioreactors, we can see useful features that may keep some instructors using these tools even when we're allowed back in the lab.  

Biomanufacturing is a collection of processes that companies use when making biological products.  In the first part of the process, living things are grown in culture under conditions where they will produce the proteins or other substances that we want.  Biotechnology products are made by a variety of living things such as plants, bacteria, human cells, algae, insect cells, yeast, fungi, and probably some I've neglected to mention.  This part of biomanufacturing is called Upstream processing.

Once a sufficient amount of a biological product has been made, that product needs to be separated from the cells and purified.  That part of biomanufacturing is called Downstream processing. 

An important piece in biomanufacturing is scale.  When researchers purify proteins to study, they do this on a small scale.  Maybe they grow a few liters of a culture and purify material from that.  When companies purify products, they have to work out how to transition from a small scale to a commercial scale.  

All the items below have been contributed by experienced biotech instructors.  If there are items we should add, please contact us and let us know. We will be adding to this collection over time.  

Resources and virtual tools for biomanufacturing arranged from small scale to larger scale upstream and downstream processes

1.  RESEARCH SCALE BIOMANUFACTURING

Assembling an Applikon Bioreactor:  This video shows how to assemble and Applikon Bioreactor, follow an SOP, and use Good Manufacturing Practices

Shutting down an Applikon Bioreactor:  This video shows how to end a run with the Applikon Bioreactor, safely dispose of any unused bacteria, and clean the reactor.

Purifying Green Fluorescent Protein:  This video shows how to purify Green Fluorescent Protein on a small scale

Making biodiesel from used cooking oil:  This video shows the process of making biofuels on a small scale

2.  SEE THE BIG PICTURE:  Go on a virtual field trip to Amgen.

3.  UPSTREAM PROCESSING - growing cells at small and large scales  

Learn how mammalian cell cultures are inoculated and scaled up to grow in 200 liter fermenters.  These materials cover using a hemocytometer to count cells, inoculating cells from frozen samples, and growing cells in single-use bioreactors.

Watch the webinar:  Virtual Tools for Single Use Biomanufacturing

Read Virtual Single-Use Biomanufacturing and download the handouts

Learn more about The use of Single-Use (Disposable) Technologies in for Biomanufacturing.  These methods involve growing cells in a plastic bag instead of growing them directly in a large reactor.

3.  CHROMATOGRAPHY AND SMALL SCALE PURIFICATION

Learn how to use an online tool for simulating protein purification.  Watch the webinar:  Virtual Tools for Protein Purification and Downstream Processing

Look at an example of purifying one protein from a simple mixture in Virtual tools for Protein Purification.

Check out the Chromatography Techniques Course in a Box (this requires logging in)

4.  DOWNSTREAM PROCESSING - purifying proteins on a larger scale

Watch the second half of the webinar:  Virtual Tools for Protein Purification and Downstream Processing

Read about Virtual Downstream Processing Tools

Lean about and access the NBC2 curriulum for purifying anti-IL-8 monoclonal antibodies from CHO cells

Read about purifying Green Fluorescent Protein on a large scale in:  GFP:  the Hellow World of Biomanufacturing  This story involves the fill and finish steps also. You can see some of your favorite biotech instructors modeling protective clothing and holding tubes of GFP. 

5.  LEARN ABOUT GMPs

"Making the Call: Quality in Biomanufacturing" is an interactive movie that presents cases from industry where different characters face interesting choices.  Go to the movie, explore the cases, and see what happens when characters at Franklin Biologics choose unwisely.

 Get the Making the Call Participant and Facilitator Guide