Synthetic Biology Journal ›› 2024, Vol. 5 ›› Issue (1): 16-37.DOI: 10.12211/2096-8280.2023-067

• Invited Review • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Progress in bioreactors and instruments for phenotype testing with synthetic biology research

Xiaojie GUO1,2, Xingjin JIAN1,2, Liyan WANG3, Chong ZHANG1,2,4, Xinhui XING1,2,4,5   

  1. 1.Institute of Biochemical Engineering,Department of Chemical Engineering,Tsinghua University,Beijing 100084,China
    2.Key Laboratory for Industrial Biocatalysis of the Ministry of Education,Beijing 100084,China
    3.Biobreeding Center,Wuxi Research Institute of Applied Technologies,Tsinghua University,Wuxi 214072,Jiangsu,China
    4.Center for Synthetic and Systems Biology,Tsinghua University,Beijing 100084,China
    5.Institute of Biopharmaceutical and Health Engineering,Tsinghua Shenzhen International Graduate School,Shenzhen 518055,Guangdong,China
  • Received:2023-09-19 Revised:2023-11-02 Online:2024-03-20 Published:2024-02-29
  • Contact: Xinhui XING

合成生物学表型测试生物反应器及其装备化研究进展

郭肖杰1,2, 剪兴金1,2, 王立言3, 张翀1,2,4, 邢新会1,2,4,5   

  1. 1.清华大学化学工程系,生物化工研究所,北京 100084
    2.工业生物催化教育部重点实验室,北京 100084
    3.清华大学无锡应用技术研究院生物育种中心,无锡 214000
    4.清华大学合成与系统生物学中心,北京 100084
    5.清华大学深圳国际研究生院生物医药与健康工程研究院,深圳 518055
  • 通讯作者: 邢新会
  • 作者简介:郭肖杰(1990—),男,博士研究生。研究方向为液滴微流控及其在微生物领域的装备化应用。 E-mail:gxj20@mails.tsinghua.edu.cn
    邢新会(1965—),男,教授。研究方向为生物化工、生物育种技术及装备等。 E-mail:xhxing@tsinghua.edu.cn
  • 基金资助:
    国家重点研发计划(2018YFA0901500);国家自然科学基金重大仪器专项(21627812);深圳市可持续发展专项(KCXFZ20201221173207022)

Abstract:

Over the past years, synthetic biology has seen significant development, establishing a typical "Design-Build-Test-Learn (DBTL)" cycle for engineering cell factories. This cycle has been becoming an enabling methodology for smart breeding to accelerate the development of biomanufacturing. In the DBTL cycle, the testing step primarily aims to evaluate the phenotypes of constructed cell factories, which can provide a large amount of data for further learning and iterative optimization. Due to the complexity of cellular metabolic networks and regulatory mechanisms, as well as the complicated associations between genotypes and phenotypes, the design and construction of cell factories have traditionally involved long-term and labor-intensive iterative experiments. In synthetic biology, the construction of cell factories with designed synthetic pathways is often combined with random mutation and evolution to build up a large screening library, which always requires a high throughput and efficient technology and equipment in the testing step. The testing step is the rate-limiting process in the entire DBTL cycle, and its efficiency is largely dependent on chassis cells themselves, as well as the throughput of bioreactors and instruments needed for their phenotype testing. Here, this review article focuses on an overview of bioreactors and instruments with different throughput scales used for the phenotype testing in synthetic biology. We introduce their characteristics and application scenarios, including single-cell detecting and screening technology as well as pico-, nano-, micro-, milli-, and liter-scale bioreactors. Moreover, this article also points out the application potential of existing phenotype testing bioreactors and instruments, and illustrates how they can be selected for specific research purposes. Finally, the challenges and perspectives for phenotype testing bioreactors and instruments are summarized, which hopefully provides a reference for a wide range of synthetic biology researchers to properly select and use phenotype testing instruments.

Key words: synthetic biology, high throughput screening, droplet microfluidics, bioreactor, micro-well plate, micro-tube bioreactor

摘要:

合成生物学经过多年的发展,形成了典型的细胞工厂创制“设计-构建-测试-学习”(design-build-test-learn, DBTL)循环,成为支撑面向加速生物制造发展的智慧生物育种的重要方法。其中,测试环节是对前期所设计与构建的生物体系进行表型测试,以提供大量数据用于后续的学习和迭代升级。测试阶段的通量主要依赖于细胞自身或其培养测试所使用的生物反应器及其装备,是整个DBTL流程的限速步骤。本文系统综述了合成生物学表型测试所开发的面向不同通量的生物反应器及装备,从单细胞检测和筛选及不同尺度生物反应器包括皮纳升级生物反应器、微升级生物反应器、毫升级生物反应器和升级生物反应器等,系统地介绍了各自的特点和应用场景。同时,指出了现有生物反应器及其装备的应用潜力、面临的挑战与发展趋势,为合成生物学表型测试技术研究提供重要参考。

关键词: 合成生物学, 高通量筛选, 液滴微流控, 生物反应器, 微孔板, 微型管式生物反应器

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