The competition for the best bioreactor at the Chair of Bioengineering at the Technical University of Dresden took place this year from July 5th to 6th. It has been organized since 2014 under the leadership of the association âNetzwerk Bioverfahrenstechnik Dresden e.V.â. The event aims to motivate students to implement their theoretically acquired knowledge into practical innovative solutions. Creativity, teamwork, and of course, enjoyment of research are at the center of this. The task for the student teams is to construct a functional bioreactor with a budget of a maximum of 99 âŹ. In the past, tasks included biological wastewater treatment using Trametes versicolor or the cultivation of Saccharomyces Cerevisiae for ethanol production, while the challenge in 2018 was efficient dye production.
This year, ten teams from all over Germany faced the exciting task of producing a yellow pigment from the class of carotenoids using the bacterium Anoxybacillus flavithermus. After long tinkering and constructing, the student teams competed against each other over two days. The bioreactor that produced the highest pigment content after a 24-hour trial period and thus won this year's bioreactor competition was developed by the team "H.E.A.T." from the University of Stuttgart. The second place for the highest biomass content was awarded to the team "Starbact's - Drop it like it's hot" from TU Berlin. The technically most innovative reactor, which was awarded third place, was presented by the team "FĂ€sschenbauer" from HTW Dresden. The award ceremony for the winning teams took place as part of the annual summer festival of the Chair of Bioengineering.
As a LIMS provider of an extremely flexible laboratory solution, we are excited about the researchers' drive, creativity, and commitment of the teams participating in this year's competition and are pleased to support the event for the second time. We congratulate all participants and look forward to the challenge next year.
