"Bacterial Culturing Is Not Difficult"... UNIST Professor Mitchell's Team Develops One-Pot Culturing System

"Living Antibiotics" Predatory Bacteria Culture Model Presented

Easy Mass Production... Published in 'Chemical Engineering'

A new method that allows bacteria to be cultured more easily and quickly has attracted attention.

It is expected to contribute to various industries such as medical research by mass-producing Bdellovibrio bacteria, known as "living antibiotics."

UNIST (President Yong-Hoon Lee) announced on the 26th that a team led by Professor Robert Mitchell from the Department of Life Sciences has developed a mass culture method and production technology called the "one-pot culture" system to utilize predatory bacteria, which are "living antibiotics."

This means a method to culture predatory bacteria easily and quickly has been sought.

An alternative culturing method to simplify the growth of the predatory bacterium B. bacteriovorus HD100.

According to UNIST, the research team studied the culture method of Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus HD100, the most extensively researched predatory bacterium.

Bdellovibrio enters other bacteria, decomposes and consumes them to grow. Utilizing this characteristic, active research is underway to treat patients infected with antibiotic-resistant bacteria called "superbugs."

To culture predatory bacteria conventionally, Escherichia coli is first cultured, and then only the E. coli cells are separated. These are then diluted in HEPES, a predatory bacteria culture medium, and predatory bacteria are added. This process requires different flasks and a culture time of over 48 hours.

The "one-pot culture" system developed by the research team significantly reduced the complex process and culture time by more than half. They analyzed the growth characteristics of both predatory bacteria and their prey bacteria and co-cultured the two bacteria simultaneously from the start. By optimizing various conditions such as pH and osmotic pressure of the culture medium, they enabled bacterial culture within 24 hours.

The research team demonstrated the developed system through small-scale bacterial culture. Large-scale culture using a fermentation reactor was also successfully conducted. This achievement increased the culture density from 5.6 billion cells/ml in conventional flasks to 7 billion cells/ml, an approximately 25% increase.

Research team. (Back row from left) Researcher Park Sinseong, Researcher EKPENYONG JOY EDET, Professor Robert Mitchell, First author Researcher Moon Wonsik, (Front row from left) Researcher Jang Hyochan, First author Researcher Choi Sumin.

Professor Robert Mitchell of the Department of Life Sciences said, "This study made it easier and faster to culture Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus HD100, increasing its potential use as a living antibiotic," and added, "It also laid the foundation for industrial production of predatory bacteria, which are sensitive to environmental conditions."

The research results were published online on the 15th in the international journal Chemical Engineering Journal. This study was supported by the Mid-career Researcher Program and the Creative Challenge Research Base Support Project funded by the National Research Foundation of Korea under the Ministry of Science and ICT.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.