How do they make bottled bacteria?

[Dan_P]

Thanks for pointing this out! Can you explain how taking a sample with gloves breaks sterility? This is interesting to me.

They might have worn gloves, but they opened the reactor hatch, exposing the batch to the air, leaned over the hatch (hair , skin and dust contamination) and, dunked in a large beaker (I am guessing it was not sterilized). The gloves are protection for the technician, not preservation of batch sterility.

 

[hart24601]

They might have worn gloves, but they opened the reactor hatch, exposing the batch to the air, leaned over the hatch (hair , skin and dust contamination) and, dunked in a large beaker (I am guessing it was not sterilized). The gloves are protection for the technician, not preservation of batch sterility.

Spot on. I worked with bioreactors and vaccines for Pfizer a couple years. We had to suit up in full single use body suits to keep things sterile and then bleach the ceiling walls and floors when a fermentation was underway every morning. We also had to take sample of our suits, the walls, and floors every day and see if any organisms grew. If so the batch was tossed even if the final product tested ok. There was also continuous air sampling again for any microorganisms.

It was a terrible job. Very demanding to produce. I would imagine many places just contract a 3rd party that does similar work to grow their bacteria.

The bioreactors are gigantic and complex as well with each fitting having steam ports. Even 100L reactors need a couple stories and a large room. Getting into 1000 and 10k can become a factory operation.

Of course depending on requirements less involved setups can be used - such as for this use or farm innocents for silage. The level of purity is quite different than what’s needed for injection.

Edit: added some old photos during tear down. Notice unlike the video it’s not just lab coats. We had to shower, change into scrubs, then put that all over it. Double gloves with 1st set taped closed to the clean suit before adding another pair over.