SFI UREKA Site in Molecular Recognition
Translating Design into Application

Biophysical Characterisation

Project 8:   Using Fluorescence Excitation-Emission Matrix (EEM) spectroscopy to characterise biogenic materials  

Supervisor:     Dr. Alan G. Ryder, School of Chemistry

Project Summary:

The generation of therapeutic proteins for human use often involves the use of mammalian cell culture and the one of the vital components to effective manufacturing is the cell culture media used to grow the cells.  A major parameter effecting biopharmaceutical production are the starting materials used in the production of these cell culture media.  In many cases the raw materials are themselves complex biogenic materials extracted from a variety of sources including milk, soya, yeast, blood, etc.  The rapid analysis of these materials is desirable for quality control, in particular when blending with other components to produce the media.  Most of these biogenic compounds contain aromatic amino acids that produce an intrinsic fluorescence signal and fluorescence excitation emission matrix (EEM) spectroscopy offers a convenient method for their analysis.  The advantage of EEM here is that due to the wide spectral range that can be sampled which allows for the simultaneous monitoring of multiple biological fluorophore (1).    Other advantages include high sensitivity and specificity and the potential for non-contact analysis via fiber optic probes. 

In this project the student will build up an EEM atlas of spectra for a wide variety of these biogenic materials which are used in industrial biotechnology.  The student will then analyze the spectra to try and understand how the spectra vary according to sample type, concentration, and temperature.

During the project the student will gain significant experience in the use of Fluorescence spectrometers, chemometrics, sample handling protocols, and the interpretation of complex spectral data. 

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