Fermentation maps to improve toxoid production in clostridia

Project Summary

Toxoid vaccines are used routinely in the livestock industry to prevent animal-disease caused by pathogenic clostridia. Vaccines are produced using batch fermentation processes, which have undergone limited optimization over the past five decades. Low titres and frequent batch failures greatly affect capital utilization and represent a significant cost factor. This project uses high-throughput chemistry (omics) to produce molecular maps of fermentation, which can be used to design a new generation of superior fermentation processes.

Achieving the aims is of direct relevance to diagnose causes of batch failure (e.g., raw material failures) and engineer productive, high density fermentation which are used to produce toxins to prevent multiple animal diseases.