Continuous bioprocessing: The real thing this time?: 10th Annual bioProcessUK Conference,December 3–4, 2013, London,UK

The Annual bioProcessUK Conference has acted as the key networking event for bioprocess scientists and engineers in the UK for the past 10 years. The following article is a report from the sessions that focused on continuous bioprocessing during the 10^th Annual bioProcessUK Conference (London, December 2013). These sessions were organized by the ‘EPSRC Centre for Innovative Manufacturing in Emergent Macromolecular Therapies’ hosted at University College London. A plenary lecture and workshop provided a forum for participants to debate topical issues in roundtable discussions with industry and academic experts from institutions such as Genzyme, Janssen, Novo Nordisk, Pfizer, Merck, GE Healthcare and University College London. The aim of these particular sessions was to understand better the challenges and opportunities for continuous bioprocessing in the bioprocessing sector.     

Exogenous GnRH overrides the endogenous annual reproductive rhythm in green iguanas, Iguana iguana

Female green iguanas, Iguana iguana, were caught in Belize, Central America (17 degrees N), in December, at the onset of seasonal gonadal activity. The animals were immediately transferred to San Diego (32 degrees N). Ovarian follicular development continued, with peak plasma hormone levels measured in January and February; 200 pg/ml for progesterone (P) and 800 pg/ml for total estrogens (Et = estradiol [E2] + estrone [E1]). E2 was the predominant estrogen throughout the cycle. Follicular atrophy was indicated in April with circulating progesterone and estrogen levels decreasing to baseline (refractory phase) levels (P = 20 pg/ml; Et = 50 pg/ml). Approximately midway through the refractory phase of their annual reproductive cycle (late May), either the D-Arg6 analog of Chicken II or mammalian GnRH was administered via intraperitoneal osmotic pumps for 14 days to nine females. The analog of chicken II induced a fivefold increase in total circulating estrogens within 3-4 days after implantation. Both continuous and pulsatile delivery of the chicken II analog produced a similar pattern of steroidogenic response. A radical sham control animal showed no increase in steroidogenesis. Mammalian GnRH produced a pattern of similar duration, although the magnitude of the steroidogenic response was only half that produced by the chicken II analog. Estrogen titers approached baseline levels in all treatment groups two days after treatment ceased. Progesterone levels increased in all treatment groups during the delivery of exogenous GnRH, although the increases were not consistent. Untreated male cagemates housed with treated females exhibited increased territoriality, courtship behavior, and mating, which began on day 4 or 5 of the treatment period. The control female was not courted by its male cagemate.     

Ecology of heath communities dominated by Cassiope tetragona at Alexandra Fiord, Ellesmere Island, Canada

At a high arctic lowland on Ellesmere Island, heath communities dominated by Cassiope tetragona were widespread, and occurred in a variety of habitats that differred in time of snowmelt, relative site moisture, soil thaw depth, and air and soil temperature. Cover, standing crop, and production were dominated by woody plants, notably Cassiope tetragona and Dryas integrifolia . The Cassiope -dominated heaths were similar in composition to those at other Canadian high arctic localities, but were less similar to localities in Greenland and Spitzbergen. Compositional relationships among Cassiope -dominated heaths in different habitats at the study site may be largely determined by two interrelated environmental factors, time of snowmelt and site moisture.
Aboveground vascular plant biomass was concentrated near the ground surface, resulting in simple vertical structure that takes advantage of relatively warm soil and air temperatures in summer, and a protective snow cover in winter. Aboveground vascular plant standing crop was largely comprised of attached dead tissue, and there were equal proportions of above- and belowground biomass. Low community production was due to dominance by long-lived, slow-growing species, and to short growing seasons and cold temperatures. Overall character of Cassiope -dominated heaths reflects the conservative, stress tolerant growth strategy of the dominant species, Cassiope tetragona .     

Urinary hormone analysis as a diagnostic tool to evaluate the ovarian function of female gorillas (Gorilla gorilla)

Daily urine samples were collected from 4 adult female gorillas over 7 menstrual cycles. Urinary oestrone conjugate and pregnanediol-3-glucuronide (PDG) were measured by radioimmunoassay; LH was measured by enzyme immunoassay and each hormone was indexed by creatinine. The quantity of urinary LH during the ovulatory surge was positively correlated with the quantity of PDG excreted during the luteal phase (r = 0.87, P = 0.0013). The observations indicate a relationship between the quality of the LH surge and the levels of PDG in the luteal phase and suggest that both the LH surge and subsequent luteal phase function may be predictable from the oestrogen excretion profile during the follicular phase.     

Ferricrocin functions as the main intracellular iron-storage compound in mycelia ofNeurospora crassa

Summary Neurospora crassa produces several structurally distinct siderophores: coprogen, ferricrocin, ferrichrome C and some minor unknown compounds. Under conditions of iron starvation, desferricoprogen is the major extracellular siderophore whereas desferriferricrocin and desferriferrichrome C are predominantly found intracellularly. Mössbauer spectroscopic analyses revealed that coprogen-bound iron is rapidly released after uptake in mycelia of the wild-typeN.crassa 74A. The major intracellular target of iron distribution is desferriferricrocin. No ferritin-like iron pools could be detected. Ferricrocin functions as the main intracellular iron-storage peptide in mycelia ofN. crassa. After uptake of ferricrocin in both the wild-typeN. crassa 74A and the siderophore-free mutantN. crassa arg-5 ota aga, surprisingly little metabolization (11%) could be observed. Since ferricrocin is the main iron-storage compound in spores ofN. crassa, we suggest that ferricrocin is stored in mycelia for inclusion into conidiospores.