Digital penicillin production

TU Wien and Sandoz GmbH have successfully implemented a real-time computer simulation of the complex growth behaviour of penicillin producing organisms. This simulation now helps to keep the production process under control. For thousands of years, micro-organisms have been used to facilitate chemical reactions - in beer brewing, for example. However, biochemical processes are incredibly complex, with a multitude of reactions taking place simultaneously and influencing one another. There are countless parameters that play a role, not all of which can be directly measured. Despite the difficulties involved, researchers at TU Wien are now working on examining these processes in detail. Now, in cooperation with pharmaceutical manufacturer Sandoz, TU Wien has succeeded in analysing and comprehensively replicating a penicillin production process using a computer model.