The impact of Ivan Málek's continuous culture concept on bioprocessing.

This paper summarizes research results and their industrial applications obtained by continuous culture in the former Czechoslovakia. Past achievements as well as recent trends and developments worldwide are presented. The term "Prague School of continuous culture" is put forward and its international activity is outlined. The impact of this school was pervasive across the entire field of applied microbiology and biotechnology in Czechoslovakia and, perhaps, even beyond the country's borders. Continuous culture is a very mature field, and since its establishment it has become a powerful research tool. The present activity in this field amounts to a renaissance of continuous culture, emphasizing new dimensions in bioinformatics and systems biology.