Monitoring of different substrates such as glucose, glutamine, etc. in bioprocesses is very crucial for healthy growth and maximum product yields of the organisms. For the monitoring of these substrates, we propose a multi-channel biochemistry analyzer. In contrast to the commercially available electrochemical sensors, the proposed sensor is an optical sensor based on periplasmic binding proteins. We have developed a prototype that features an aseptic sample collection technique and uses a micro fluorometer for fluorescence measurement from a specially modified chromatography column that houses the immobilized binding protein. Preliminary studies were conducted using glucose binding proteins that showed linear fluorescence response with glucose concentrations. The prototype was then used to monitor the glucose concentration in yeast culture in a mini bioreactor. We intend to upgrade this to a multi-channel biochemistry analyzer for simultaneous measurements of other substrates with glucose and commercialize the product for both bioprocess and healthcare applications.
