Category: chemical engineering

The need for more investment in bioseparation research in support of metabolic engineering and biotechnology

March 16, 2024

Metabolic engineering research has seen tremendous growth over the past 25 years, and has realised the production of many drugs and fuel compounds at least at the lab scale level. It uses a carefully choreographed series of genetic manipulations to endow microbial chassis cells with new and improved metabolic capabilities in aid of product formation. … More The need for more investment in bioseparation research in support of metabolic engineering and biotechnology

Many manufacturing plants in the pharmaceutical industry are moving into the big data era

March 15, 2024

Big data has been touted to revolutionize many industries in the near future. Indeed, the era of big data has arrived in many manufacturing industries such as the petrochemical and biopharmaceutical industries. In the case of manufacturing plants of pharmaceutical industries, there is a movement towards digitisation of all manufacturing operations to help capture all … More Many manufacturing plants in the pharmaceutical industry are moving into the big data era

Emerging trend in biorefinery is in the extraction and use of every possible fraction from the bio-renewable feedstock

January 26, 2024

Similar to a conventional oil refinery, there is an emerging trend in using as much as possible of the energy and material value of bio-renewable feedstock in biorefinery. At the centre of each biorefinery is a species of genetically engineered cells able to perform a specific task in producing a valuable product. But, experience from … More Emerging trend in biorefinery is in the extraction and use of every possible fraction from the bio-renewable feedstock

Adsorption processes offer promise for treating dye wastewater

December 11, 2023

Dye wastewater presents challenges both in terms of toxicity and organic pollutant load. Toxicity of dyes hampers conventional biological wastewater treatment. Biosorption offers a path for reducing toxicity of dye wastewater prior to cleanup of effluent by activated carbon. An adsorption-based process bypassing biological treatment assures process robustness and reliability. Potential reuse of the spent … More Adsorption processes offer promise for treating dye wastewater

Brief overview of my journey in biotechnology research (Year: 2004 to 2020)

October 29, 2023

My journey in research started with an UROP (Undergraduate Research Opportunities Project) research project in 2004 on understanding the effect of ammonium on the adsorption of copper by local seaweed. This project taught me the rigors and discipline required in research, as well as the logistics revolving around a research project. Having gained valuable experience … More Brief overview of my journey in biotechnology research (Year: 2004 to 2020)

Different incarnations of the new discipline at the intersection of biology and engineering

October 5, 2023

Over the past two decades, there has been a flourish of research and educational initiatives at the interface of engineering and biology. The goal is to make biology more quantitative, informative, and engineering based to afford new insights into disease treatment and for applied product development such as cancer immunotherapy. In this area, three complementary … More Different incarnations of the new discipline at the intersection of biology and engineering

Opportune moment to redirect synthetic biology’s focus towards bioseparation

August 28, 2023

Much of the past 20 years has seen significant progress in strain engineering and genetic engineering for increasing production titer in metabolic engineering research. But, production titer remain low compared to conventional synthetic organic chemistry synthesis routes. Hence, price of synthetic biology products remains high, and largely uncompetitive compared to products manufactured via conventional methods … More Opportune moment to redirect synthetic biology’s focus towards bioseparation

Manipulation of an organism’s metabolism lies at the heart of metabolic engineering

August 7, 2023

Since 2000s, there has been much interest in the use of metabolic engineering to create organisms able to synthesize a variety of useful chemical compounds such as biofuels, drugs, and speciality chemicals. So, what is metabolic engineering? At the heart of metabolic engineering is a sequence of carefully choreographed genetic engineering steps that express new … More Manipulation of an organism’s metabolism lies at the heart of metabolic engineering

Things that I learned from my UROP project

July 18, 2023

My first research project was in using seaweed to uptake and adsorb copper ions in water under ammonium ion interference. Basically, the task was to show that local marine seaweed collected at Labrador Park, Singapore could be used to remove copper from water under the competitive binding effect from the cationic ammonium ion. The project … More Things that I learned from my UROP project

Emerging trend in biorefinery is in the extraction and use of every possible fraction from the bio-renewable feedstock

February 15, 2023

Similar to a conventional oil refinery, there is an emerging trend in using as much as possible of the energy and material value of bio-renewable feedstock in biorefinery. At the centre of each biorefinery is a species of genetically engineered cells able to perform a specific task in producing a valuable product. But, experience from … More Emerging trend in biorefinery is in the extraction and use of every possible fraction from the bio-renewable feedstock