Industrial Microbiology

4 Key excerpts on "Industrial Microbiology"

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  eBook - ePub

  Pharmaceutical Microbiology

  Essentials for Quality Assurance and Quality Control

  • Tim Sandle(Author)
  • 2015(Publication Date)
  • Woodhead Publishing

    (Publisher)

  1

  Introduction to pharmaceutical microbiology

  Abstract

  Pharmaceutical microbiology is a specialist area of microbiology and one concerned with the use of microorganisms in pharmaceutical development and with maintaining contamination control. This chapter introduces the subject and outlines some the typical tests conducted within a pharmaceutical microbiology laboratory (such as microbial limits, sterility, endotoxin, water testing, and environmental monitoring). The chapter further considers the role of the microbiologist in relation to the pharmaceutical processing environment, and the necessary contribution that the microbiologist must make to an organization’s contamination control strategy.

  Keywords Microbiology Contamination control Pharmaceuticals Healthcare Quality control Quality assurance Good manufacturing practice.

  1.1 Introduction

  Microbiology is a biological science involved with the study of microscopic organisms. Microbiology is made up of several sub-disciplines, including: bacteriology (the study of bacteria), mycology (the study of fungi), phycology (the study of algae), parasitology (the study of parasites), and virology (the study of viruses, and how they function inside cells) [1 ]. These broad areas encompass a number of specific fields. These fields include: immunology (the study of the immune system and how it works to protect us from harmful organisms and harmful substances produced by them); pathogenic microbiology (the study of disease-causing microorganisms and the disease process (epidemiology and etiology)); microbial genetics (which is linked to molecular biology); food microbiology (studying the effects of food spoilage); and so on [2 ].

  The microbiological discipline of relevance here is pharmaceutical microbiology, an applied branch of microbiology (once considered as an off-shoot of Industrial Microbiology but now a distinct field). Pharmaceutical microbiology is concerned with the study of microorganisms associated with the manufacture of pharmaceuticals. This is with either using microorganisms to help to produce pharmaceuticals or with controlling the numbers in a process environment. This latter concern is about ensuring that the finished product is either sterile or free from those specific strains that are regarded as objectionable. This extends through the manufacturing process, encompassing starting materials, and water. Pharmaceutical microbiologists are additionally interested in toxins (microbial by-products like endotoxins and pyrogens), particularly with ensuring that these and other “vestiges” of microorganisms (which may elicit adverse patient responses) are absent from products.

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  eBook - ePub

  Industrial Microbiology

  An Introduction

  • Michael J. Waites, Neil L. Morgan, John S. Rockey, Gary Higton(Authors)
  • 2013(Publication Date)
  • Wiley-Blackwell

    (Publisher)

  Part 2

  Bioprocessing

  Passage contains an image

  4

  Industrial microorganisms

  Microoorganisms are used extensively to provide a vast range of products and services (Table 4.1 ). They have proved to be particularly useful because of the ease of their mass cultivation, speed of growth, use of cheap substrates (which in many cases are wastes) and the diversity of potential products. Their ability to readily undergo genetic manipulation has also opened up almost limitless further possibilities for new products and services from the fermentation industries.

  Traditional fermentations were originally performed (and still are in some cases) by a mixture of wild microorganisms emanating from the raw materials or the local environment, e.g. some food and alcoholic beverage fermentations. Initial attempts to improve the microorganisms involved occurred little more than 120 years ago, when they were first isolated from these processes as pure cultures from which the most useful strains were then selected. Those fermentation processes developed during the first 80 years of the 20th century have mostly used monocultures. The specific microorganisms employed were often isolated from the natural environment, which involved the random screening of a large number of isolates. Alternatively, suitable microorganisms were acquired from culture collections (see p. 78). Most of these microorganisms, irrespective of their origins, were subsequently modified by conventional strain improvement strategies, using mutagenesis or breeding programmes, to improve their properties for industrial use. Several processes developed in the last 20 years have involved recombinant microorganisms and genetic engineering technology has increasingly been used to improve established industrial strains.

  In most cases, regulatory considerations are of major importance when choosing microorganisms for industrial use. Fermentation industries often prefer to use established GRAS (generally regarded as safe) microorganisms (Table 4.2

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  eBook - ePub

  BIOS Instant Notes in Microbiology

  • Simon Baker, Jane Nicklin, Caroline Griffiths(Authors)
  • 2011(Publication Date)
  • Taylor & Francis

    (Publisher)

  SECTION G – Industrial Microbiology

  G1 Biotechnology

  Key Notes
  Biotechnology	Biotechnology is the use of living organisms in technology and industry. Prokaryotes have been exploited for many years in the manufacture of food and other useful products. For large- scale applications, prokaryotes are grown in fermenters using batch, fed-batch or continuous-culture processes.
  Gene technology and biotechnology	The efficient production of some proteins and chemicals can only be carried out by mutant or recombinant microorganisms. Gene technology provides a means of providing virus-free human proteins, as well as the overexpression of useful enzymes from extremophiles.
  Bioremediation	The biodeterioration of man-made compounds by microbes can be a problem (e.g. in the case of paints and plastics) or a benefit when it comes to cleaning up the environment. Bioremediation is the use of microbes to treat waste water and soil where unacceptable levels of pollutants have accumulated. Even highly toxic compounds such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) can be metabolized by some Bacteria.
  Related topics	(D3 ) Large-scale and continuous culture	(F11 ) Plasmids continuous culture

  Biotechnology

  Microorganisms have been used to make a wide variety of products for many thousands of years, but lately this has been called biotechnology. In order to produce products or intermediates, microbes are grown in large vats (fermenters) protected from contamination and changes in pH, temperature, and dissolved oxygen concentration. Industrial fermenters vary in size from a few liters to several thousand liters (see Section D3

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  Environmental Engineering

  Basic Principles

  • Vesna Tomašić, Bruno Zelić(Authors)
  • 2018(Publication Date)
  • De Gruyter

    (Publisher)

  Felicita Briški and Marija Vuković Domanovac

  4 Environmental microbiology

  This article has previously been published in the journal Physical Sciences Reviews. Please cite as: Briški, F., Vuković Domanovac, M. Environmental Microbiology. Physical Sciences Reviews [Online]

  Abstract: For most people, microorganisms are out of sight and therefore out of mind but they are large, extremely diverse group of organisms, they are everywhere and are the dominant form of life on planet Earth. Almost every surface is colonized by microorganisms, including our skin; however most of them are harmless to humans. Some microorganisms can live in boiling hot springs, whereas others form microbial communities in frozen sea ice. Among their many roles, microorganisms are necessary for biogeochemical cycling, soil fertility, decomposition of dead plants and animals and biodegradation of many complex organic compounds present in the environment. Environmental microbiology is concerned with the study of microorganisms in the soil, water and air and their application in bioremediation to reduce environmental pollution through the biological degradation of pollutants into nontoxic or less toxic substances. Field of environmental microbiology also covers the topics such as microbially induced biocorrosion, biodeterioration of constructing materials and microbiological quality of outdoor and indoor air.

  Keywords: microorganisms, environment, indicator microorganisms, biodegradation, bioremediation

  Gentlemen, it is the microbes who will have the last word .

  (Louis Pasteur)

  4.1 Evolution of microorganisms

  Earth is about 4.5 billion years old and scientists estimate that life first emerged at least 3.8 billion years ago after the surface of crust had cooled enough to allow liquid water to form. Early Earth was inhospitable from time to time because space rocks crushed into the Earth’s surface. Some impacts were powerful enough to vaporize oceans and create clouds of steam which sterilized the Earth’s surface. Nonetheless, some microorganisms were able to survive this period deep underground while some may have had the capacity of modern microorganism to produce survival forms called endospores. Early in the planet’s history conditions were harsh. The Earth’s surface was exposed to strong ultraviolet (UV) radiation because the ozone layer was not yet formed in the atmosphere. Nevertheless, the prokaryotic microorganisms began to develop. The first prokaryotic microorganisms lived in anaerobic environment because atmosphere was a mixture of CO2 , N2 , and H2 O vapour and in traces H2 . O2 gas began to appear in significant amount in the Earth’s atmosphere between 2.5 and 2 billion years ago as a result of microbial metabolic process called oxygenic photosynthesis. Oxygenic photosynthesis which started around 3 billion years ago differed from earlier forms of photosynthesis and the bacteria responsible for this type of photosynthesis are called cyanobacteria . Cyanobacteria brought the O2 level of the Earth’s atmosphere up to 10% of today’s level and due to it the formation of ozone layer started. O2 level was high enough to enable evolution of oxygen-utilizing organisms [1 , 2 ]. An approximate timeline of the development of life on Earth is presented in Figure 4.1 . Since many eukaryotes are O2

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