Bioteknologi UGM – Master of Biotechnology study program at Postgraduate School of Universitas Gadjah Mada (UGM) has recently received an honoured opportunity to conduct a public lecture with Prof. Dr. Michael Sauer, Professor and Deputy Head of the Department of Biotechnology, from Universität für Bodenkultur Wien (BOKU University). In this public lecture, he presented a lecture of bioprocess technology and also offered PhD positions for all of Master’s students in Biotechnology at UGM. Previously, he received a Master’s degree in Biotechnology at the ETH Zürich University, Austria, and continued his PhD program in Biochemistry at the University of Vienna, Austria.
BOKU University is one of the best Vienna’s universities in Austria which was founded in 1872 and becomes the academic and research centre for renewable energy in Vienna, Austria. BOKU University offers several study programs which focus on science, engineering, and biotechnology and also social and economy study program.
Prof. Dr. Michael Sauer presented secondary metabolite production with microbes through bioreactor technologies. Bioreactor is a place used for living microorganisms (microbes) and allows these microbes to grow and conduct fermentation under controlled conditions. Michael explained there are two types of bioreactors that can be used for bioprocess research; a) Surface Bioreactors (SBRs) and b) Submerged Bioreactors (Submerged Membrane Bioreactors (SMBs)). Surface bioreactor showed that any microbes that have been cultured in this bioreactor, they will be living in a surface of the bioreactor or anchored to the surface of a solid medium. Meanwhile, the submerged bioreactors used a specific suspension to grow and culture of any microbes in this bioreactor. Michael also added if the suspension bioreactors like submerged bioreactors may support a wider variety of organisms (microbes) since special attachment surfaces are not needed, and can operate at a much larger scale than immobilized cultures. Moreover, Michael also explained on ‘How to Input The Energy (Oxygen) to The Bioreactor’ through a mixing technique in which the part of the below bioreactor mostly uses a special stirer or beater and bubble column where there are bubbles that will be injected into the bioreactor as the aeration occurs.
In the final public lecture of Bioprocess Technology, Prof. Dr. Michael Sauer added an explanation of the offered PhD programs at BOKU University. The Ph.D programs offers a three years study with a total of 180 ECTS (The European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System) which the credits include research component (research and dissertation) and also the course materials. The research subject that will be conducting for the PhD program at BOKU University should fit with the offered program in PhD studies at BOKU Universities and its institution.
