Dynamics of Escherichia coli population expressing heterologous proteins

Expression of heterologous proteins in Escherichia coli is an important and highly used system for obtaining large quantities of recombinant proteins for a wide range of applications in biotechnologies, medicine etc. However, the ability for delivering high quantities of recombinant proteins at desired quality and the cost effectiveness of the process is under serious scrutiny. Most improvements on bioprocesses for recombinant proteins production are focused on downstream processing, like primary recovery and purification. The present work relies on monitoring the bacterial population development and dynamics in the bioreactor, and presents the premises for modelling and optimization.