Texas Professional Engineer

Melding Talents with a Career in Bioprocessing

Bioprocessing is an expanding field encompassing any process that uses living cells or their components (e.g., bacteria, enzymes, or chloroplasts) to obtain desired products, such as biofuels and therapeutics. As with other fields considered under the broader scope of biotechnology, bioprocessing draws upon multiple areas of knowledge, but especially molecular biology, chemical engineering, and manufacturing. With advances in biotechnology and an ongoing need for pharmaceuticals and sustainable forms of fuel as well as cheaper, more effective ways to make them, the opportunities in bioprocessing, at both the undergraduate and graduate level, are looking promising. David Wood, professor in the Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering at the Ohio State University, bioprocessing can be loosely divided into four major and somewhat diverse areas, namely: (1) large-scale food processing, (2) the manufacture of fine chemicals and small-molecule pharmaceuticals, (3) the production of recombinant protein therapeutics (biologics), and (4) the generation of renewable energy.

"Bioprocessing is generally distinguished from farming or agriculture in that it usually refers to methods that include the use of isolated cells or enzymes in an artificial environment," explains Wood. However, he points out that bioprocessing is a highly diverse field of study that can range from the large-scale manufacture of fermented foods or biofuels to smaller-scale, high-value therapeutic protein production. Although all of these processes are tied together by their reliance on a biological component, the scale, technologies involved, and economic drivers exhibit enormous diversity, says Wood.

"The bioprocessing field spans processes yielding a few grams of product worth millions of dollars per gram (e.g., some pharmaceuticals), to processes yielding millions of tons of products worth a few cents per pound (e.g., some biofuels)," says Suwan N. Jayasinghe, principal investigator for the biophysics group in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at University College London (UCL), United Kingdom, explains that the term bioprocessing is expanding to include a greater variety of disciplines including biophysics, biotechnology, and biomaterials. "In essence there are several ways to define the field and wide variations exist," he says.

Considering the diversity of bioprocessing research and the increasing demand for products such as biofuels and pharmaceuticals, career opportunities are likely to grow. "This is an ever-expanding industry," says UCL's Jayasinghe. "Our need for tackling and understanding our evolving health care problems are constantly challenging conventional biology and medicine and thus requires the constant need for new minds.

Blue Landworks now licensed in Texas

Blue Landworks LLC announced it is a licensed firm for providing professional engineering services in the state of Texas. Blue Landworks provides civil engineering services for public projects as well as private residential, commercial and light industrial projects serving government, developers, architects, law firms, homeowner associations, Realtors and banks.