Webinar: Phage Contamination as a Major Cause of Process Failures

Sponsored by:

Focused on:

Date: 17th November

Days old: 3010

Time: 3PM London/10AM New York

How to recognize and troubleshoot phage contamination

Bacteriophages, the sworn enemies of bacteria, are also major troublemakers in bioprocesses, which are based on bacterial activities. They have devastating effect not only on ongoing process but, when spread in the facility, they may contaminate subsequent batches. In the worst case scenario, they may paralyse facility productivity and make process re-start efforts unsuccessful for months.

During the webinar the facts about phage contamination in bioprocesses will be presented. There is a lot of confusion and misunderstanding around phages which do not always reflect the facts, so some background information will be provided to the participants. Potential causes of process failure and the most common symptoms of phage contamination will also be discussed.

Recognition of the potential source of the problem is just an initial step of problem troubleshooting. The most critical are subsequent steps in minimization of phage impact on facility and production activities. The steps which should be undertaken will be discussed during the webinar.

Phage contamination occurs most frequently in Autumn, and as it is much better to be safe than sorry I strongly encourage you to register for this webinar.

Presented by

Dr. Marcin Los,

CEO

Marcin Łoś was born in Olsztyn, Poland. He attended study on Intercollegiate Faculty of Biotechnology of University of Gdansk and Medical University of Gdansk in 1995.

He completed experiments to his M.Sc. at University of Bradford (UK) and defended the M.Sc. degree at University of Gdansk in August 1999. In September 1999 he started his Ph.D. studies in molecular biology at University of Gdansk.

He spent one year in Fraunhofer Institute for Silicon Technology in Itzehoe, Germany (X.2002 - X.2003) as a researcher involved in construction of novel virus detection methods. He obtained Ph.D. degree in June 2004. In 2011 he obtained a D.Sc. degree.

In 2007 he founded a company Phage Consultants, in which he holds a CEO position. The company specializes in a prevention and eradication of various contaminants from fermentation facilities and research laboratories and contract research in field of phage biology, pharmacology and biotechnology.

His main scientific interests are bacteriophage biology and rapid detection methods.

Key Learning Objectives

  • Are phages dangerous for my process?
  • How to recognize phage contamination on a first glance?
  • What are the most common sources of phage infection?
  • What to do to minimize phage impact on facility

Audience

  • Heads of Fermentation
  • Fermentation Personnel
  • Quality Assurance
  • QA/QC