Developing a High Titer Defined Medium and Feed for E. coli Fermentation Systems

E. coli has been a workhorse for the biotechnology industry for numerous years and holds many advantages.  The foremost of the advantages is the cell line’s ability to grow on many types of nutrients from complex components to minimal salts.  Complex growth components offer assured and robust growth with high titers, but little in the way of development opportunities.  Minimal salts are well defined and allow for maximal avenues of investigation, but generally come with less robustness and lower titers.  There is need for a balanced approach where all of the nutritional components are known, but all of the benefits of the complex supplements are maintained.  By defining the components of complex media, fine tuning processes to modify metabolic rates in E. coli processes can be undertaken to increase titer.  Through the analysis of the complex medium used in a fermentation process, and the investigation of its constitutive components, the development of such a medium and feed for E. coli can be achieved.  For this study, concentrates were formulated and blended to generate fermentation medium and feeds which achieved commensurate growth and production for both insoluble and soluble recombinant protein production when compared to complex formulations.  The study method and results are described in this presentation.