On-line measurement in biotechnology: exploitation, objectives and benefits.

Sound data biologically relevant are prerequisites when developing high-performance bioprocesses. Understanding of physiological regulation as well as sophisticated control strategies are highly dependent on the observability of the culture, i.e. the generation and exploitation of suited signals even under complex environmental measurement conditions. Against this background, the increasing number of analytical systems is very supportive and, accordingly, an appropriate handling of sensors and measured data is of decisive importance. This article reports on practical experience with routines for maintenance, service and calibration of hardware sensors which improve the quality of measurements significantly. Verification and validation of signals is outlined in order to make the value of data exploitation tools obvious. A method for the characterization of information is introduced by practical examples of Saccharomyces cerevisiae cultures when explaining the specific properties of extracting biological information from raw data. Finally, examples for advantageous exploitation of on-line data are given.