Chyna Mays (BELCHER LAB)

Engineering a Biomining Platform for Lithium Extraction

Conventional lithium brine mining is an outdated process, relying mostly on chemical reagents and evaporation to procure lithium from competing salts. Not only is lithium extraction a slow process, but it also has a low recovery rate due to impurities co-precipitating with lithium. We present an alternative approach for brine extraction by engineering yeast to hyperaccumulate lithium in saline environments. To meet the growing demand, this biomining platform provides a basis for extracting lithium quickly and efficiently with reduced environmental impact.

Alexander Bevacqua (HAN & CHEN LABS)

Continuous Harvesting of Viral Vectors from Perfusion Culture Using Spiral Inertial Microfluidics

Viral vector manufacturing, through perfusion culture of mammalian cells, has a crucial role in advancing gene and cell therapy commercialization. Perfusion culture uses a cell retention device which keeps cells in a bioreactor and harvests viral vectors. Industry-standard, membrane-based cell retention devices encounter fouling and clogging issues that reduce product recovery. We use spiral inertial microfluidic cell retention technology to continuously produce and harvest viral vectors from perfusion culture with high recovery for 7 days.