- provides infrastructure.
- Keywords: bioengineering laboratory, bioprocess laboratory, bioreactor, biomaterials research, tissue engineering, Üsküdar University engineering
What Is the Bioengineering Basic and Applied Laboratory? / What Is Its Purpose?
Üsküdar University Bioengineering Basic and Applied Laboratory is an advanced research and education center where the design, development, and scale-up processes of high-value-added biotechnological products are carried out by bringing together biological systems and engineering principles.
- Main Purpose: To provide students and researchers with the competence to conduct both basic scientific research in the fields of cellular factories, enzyme engineering, biomaterials, and bioprocess technologies and to transform this research into engineering solutions that can be implemented on an industrial scale.
- Academic Contribution: The laboratory integrates molecular biology data with process engineering. It provides a strong academic infrastructure in areas such as the controlled cultivation of living cells or biological components, bioreactor designs, and the optimization of downstream (product purification) processes.
Devices and Technical Equipment Available in the Laboratory
The laboratory infrastructure includes equipment that provides precise parameter control across a wide range, from cellular studies at the microscale to bioprocess systems at the macroscale. Within the framework of Key Features, the laboratory equipment includes:
- Bioreactor and Fermenter Systems: Main production units where critical parameters such as temperature, pH, dissolved oxygen, and mixing speed are managed by computer control, and where cell and microorganism cultures are grown on an industrial scale.
- Laminar Air Flow Cabinets (Biosafety Cabinets - Class II): Biosafety sterile cabinets that enable cell culture and microbiological inoculation procedures to be performed in a sterile environment without the risk of contamination.
- Carbon Dioxide Incubators: Precision climate-control devices that provide the body temperature (37 °C) and optimal gas balance required for the growth and maintenance of mammalian and human cell lines.
- High-Performance Refrigerated Centrifuges: Systems that enable cell suspensions, proteins, and biological macromolecules to be separated by precipitation at high speed and under controlled temperature without causing damage.
- Benchtop Autoclaves and Sterilizers: Equipment that enables culture media, glassware, and consumables used in the laboratory to be completely biologically sterilized under high-pressure steam.
Research Areas and Areas of Application
The practical courses, graduate theses, and interdisciplinary projects conducted in the laboratory cover the most strategic fields of modern biotechnology:
- Bioprocess and Fermentation Technology: Processes for producing industrial enzymes, vaccines, recombinant proteins, and biofuels with optimum efficiency through microorganisms or cell cultures.
- Biomaterials and Tissue Engineering: Synthesis, characterization, and three-dimensional modeling studies of biocompatible polymers for the repair of tissues inside the body or the creation of artificial organ scaffolds.
- Cell and Tissue Culture Applications: Cultivation of primary and continuous cell lines, cryopreservation (freezing and storage) techniques, and cell viability and toxicity tests.
- Downstream Processing: Separation of biological products (proteins, antibiotics, etc.) produced in bioreactors from the medium and obtaining them at high purity through chromatographic and filtration methods.
Contributions to Students and the Industry
The Bioengineering Basic and Applied Laboratory provides students with the vision of transforming theoretical approaches into high-value-added industrial products and prepares them for the global biotechnology market.
- Industrial Scale-Up Competence: Students learn firsthand how to transfer a biological reaction that begins in a laboratory tube to liter-scale bioreactor volumes (scale-up principles).
- Strategic Employment Potential: Graduates trained with the practical discipline provided by this laboratory can rapidly build careers as "Bioengineers" or "Process Development (R&D) Specialists" in biotechnological pharmaceutical (biosimilar) production facilities, biodefense units of the defense industry, R&D centers in food and agricultural biotechnology, implant/prosthesis companies producing biomaterials, and environmental biotechnology laboratories.
