January 20, 2025 • 13 mins
Industrial fermentation—a core biotechnology process that harnesses living organisms—is a growing discipline used across multiple industries. In this episode of Inside IALR, we recap IALR’s first week-long fermentation workshop, offered in partnership with Virginia Tech and industry experts. Joining the conversation are Dr. Scott Lowman, Ph.D., Vice President of Applied Research at IALR; Biswarup Mukhopadhyay, Ph.D., Professor with Virginia Tech's Department of Biochemistry; and Justin Cesmat, Product Line Manager for Bioprocessing at Distek, Inc. They share insights on:
- Fundamentals of fermentation and its real-world applications
- Workshop structure, participants, and hands-on training
- Interdisciplinary skills needed for success in fermentation
- Importance of collaboration between academia and industry
- Plans for expanding future fermentation training programs
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Caleb Ayers (00:09):
All right, so welcome to another episode of
Inside IALR.
Thanks for joining us.
So we have a fun one today.
Sometimes, you know, we'retalking about internship
programs, Sometimes we'retalking about manufacturing
processes and today, of allthings, we're talking about
fermentation.
So we here at the Institute forAdvanced Learning and Research
housed a one-week workshop thispast week, January 13th through
(00:30):
17th, for basically trainingentry-level workers and even
some college students on sort ofthe processes of fermentation.
So I'm going to have we havefour guests today, so it'll be a
packed group.
I'm going to have each of youguys introduce yourselves.
Biswarup Mukhopadhyay (00:43):
Yeah, my name is Vishwar Mukhopadhyay.
I'm a professor of biochemistryat Virginia Tech, originally
trained as a chemist andengineer.
Biochemical engineer thenbecame microbiologist and
biochemist.
Scott Lowman (00:56):
And I'm Scott Lohman.
I am vice president of researchat the Institute for Advanced
Learning and Research and I'mhappy to participate with this
podcast.
Caleb Ayers (01:03):
And we realized today, the most frequent guest
on this podcast we've had, soexcellent.
Justin Cesmat (01:09):
And I'm Justin Sesmat.
I'm the product line managerfor our bioprocessing product
line at Distek, so we produce aline of benchtop bioreactors and
controllers which were used asthe hands-on instrument for this
training course, and mybackground is actually in
biosystems engineering.
I've done a lot of work withprocess scale-up and tech
transfer around fermentation andcell culture process.
Caleb Ayers (01:32):
This is a question, open-ended question for all of
you.
We'll keep it short and sweet.
What is fermentation, and kindof what industries is that
commonly used in?
Biswarup Mukhopadh (01:41):
Fermentation came from anaerobic processes
where some sort of a like itstarted with the alcoholic
fermentation, where productionof alcohol that's where the word
came and those processes occurin the absence of oxygen Wine is
another one, and talking aboutbeer but then those occurred in
(02:04):
large tanks or large systems andthen people started producing
product using microbes at largetanks, so similar to
operationally like alcoholproduction, but in the presence
of oxygen.
But they continue to use theword fermentation and fermenter,
although those are notoccurring in the presence of
(02:25):
oxygen, and that's caught on.
So now everything about growingmicrobes at a larger scale we
call fermentation and fermenter,but better word probably
bioreactor, which is a moreneutral term.
Caleb Ayers (02:40):
Okay, so anything with microbes you're saying,
that sort of falls under theumbrella of fermentation?
I know this was the firstworkshop we offered here.
Tell us a little bit about kindof what the week was like.
Well, first of all, I guess,who came to this workshop?
What was kind of the targetmarket for this?
Scott Lowman (02:57):
We're so thrilled to host the workshop here at the
Institute and it's a greatopportunity for us to bring
together experts like ProfessorMukagopathy from Virginia Tech,
as well as industry like thistech, and to see their wonderful
equipment.
But, importantly, we also havestudents here from community
college, from Virginia Tech, aswell as industry participants,
(03:17):
so people that are scaling up orbuilding new facilities and
they're interested in sendingemployees here to learn more
about fermentation.
So it's a week-long event, it'shands-on, it's taught by
experts and, again, it'ssomething that we're very proud
to partner with Virginia Tech toput this on.
Caleb Ayers (03:38):
So what was this week like for the students that
were here?
I mean, walk me through.
Was it a lot of classroom time,a lot of experimenting with
different kinds of technologyand hands-on?
Was it some of all of the above?
What was this week like?
Scott Lowman (03:50):
The week included both classroom and hands-on
activities.
They not only learned about thefundamentals and the principles
of fermentation in theclassroom, but they went and
then put those principles towork on machines themselves and
on various types of equipment toanalyze the products coming
(04:11):
from that fermentation.
Justin Cesmat (04:13):
And one thing for me from Distek that I really
liked about this workshop isthat we did get our hands dirty
with working on the equipment.
A lot of training coursesreally do focus a lot on theory
and lecture, which is great.
You do get a lot offoundational knowledge that way,
but really solidifying it andrunning the systems with actual
(04:34):
microbes really drives homethose concepts that we learn in
the lecture, and so having theability to go back and forth
between the two I think reallysets these students up for
understanding how the industryworks, not only from a
conceptual side, but when theyrun the small-scale bioreactors.
Those will scale to large scale, which they'll see in industry
(04:56):
as they get out into theworkforce and with kind of what
was going on this weekspecifically.
Caleb Ayers (05:02):
I heard I mean you were talking about a bioreactor.
I wasn't here, I wasn't able tocome see it that day.
Talk to me about kind of whatstudents were learning with
these reactors, what they got todo with them.
Biswarup Mukhopadhyay (05:11):
Well, a student learned that a process
originally will develop in alaboratory on a petri plate, on
a small containers like flasks,and then how to take that to a
size or a scale where you canproduce for marketing it or
selling.
So when things go from the labto the large scale, sometimes
(05:33):
things don't work out.
So how to make it work?
The large scale sometimesthings don't work out, so how to
make it work?
What are the precautions youcould take at a smaller scale
and how to scale that up?
Other option is scale down.
So envision the larger scalefrom the very beginning.
Design your experiment at asmaller scale so that way that
will be one day will be scaledup.
(05:54):
So they learn that.
And it's highlyinterdisciplinary.
So talking about microbiology,chemical engineering,
biochemistry, economics, allthose combined, and here they
learn how the process betweenthe small scale and a reactor
scale is different and in whatway it is similar.
Caleb Ayers (06:16):
I think what you guys are both talking about is
really cool, that the hands-onpart of this workshop, that it's
not just sitting in a class,it's very hands-on getting your
hands dirty, as you said andalso very multidisciplinary.
I think that kind of wraps up alot of what we try to do here
at the Institute for AdvancedLearning and Research.
We have a lot of differenttraining programs, ranging from
(06:37):
honestly elementary school evenfor STEM camps and things like
that, but middle school all theway through adult learners, and
the whole point is that it's agood mix of classroom but also
you have to do it with yourhands.
You know.
You're not just going to learnabout it in the book, you have
to do it and whether that'straining people to work for Navy
suppliers or in a middle schoolclassroom teaching them about
welding, or now in theseworkshops we're offering here,
(06:59):
they have to get their handsdirty and I like to see that.
Talk to me about kind of thecollaboration of that.
Scott, I know we've had thisidea for a while of being able
to offer this.
Talk to me about thecollaboration and sort of how we
brought this together to notjust include us but to include
Virginia Tech to include Distek,and I know there were other
companies involved as well.
So kind of talk about how thisall came together.
Scott Lowman (07:23):
So Dr Mukagopathy and I have been talking for a
number of years now about notonly the hands-on training, but
the opportunity that we havehere at the Institute to partner
with Virginia Tech to offer adifferent type of training,
something that's not only gearedtowards undergraduate and grad
students, but something thatcould include companies and
community college students orpeople wishing to change careers
(07:44):
.
We believe that thefermentation industry is growing
in Virginia.
All data indicate that thegovernor has just invested $90
million at three centers acrossthe state to increase the amount
of discovery that can lead tofermentation.
But we know that there are nota lot of support services for
those companies on the jobtraining side or on the scale-up
(08:07):
side.
So we think there's anopportunity to be both, and the
Institute's a great place to doit because we're flexible, we
have wonderful facilities andclassrooms and labs right next
to each other.
Caleb Ayers (08:17):
And for you guys at Distek.
I mean, how did you getinvolved in this?
And sort of what's the whywould you want to be involved in
something like this?
Justin Cesmat (08:24):
Yes.
So Distek, really as far as ourinstrumentation goes, one thing
that we really do emphasize isease of use, offering a system
that can be a very good trainingplatform for new scientists
that are getting intolarge-scale bioprocessing,
bioreactors, that sort of thing.
So whenever we have theopportunity to support these
(08:46):
types of training centers, wejump on them because it really
does.
It's a gap that I notice a lotwhen we're going to different
customer sites and evaluationsand universities where many of
the researchers are very muchfocused on the science and they
don't know how to take thatscience from a concept or from a
(09:08):
petri dish, as Biswarp wassaying, and taking that to a
bioreactor, and so these typesof courses really are going to
help those scientists learn howto do that work and ultimately
be more successful with theirprocess, scale up and actually
taking their projects toindustry.
So, as far as DISTEC goes,that's one thing that we really
(09:30):
pride ourselves on, and we havemany different controllers at
teaching institutions throughoutthe US.
So this IALR support is rightin our wheelhouse and we love to
help these types of programs.
Caleb Ayers (09:43):
Yeah, no, absolutely, and I know we go the
opposite way.
Where we were, I mean,technically a part of the
Commonwealth of Virginia, butwork very well.
We're bridging that gap betweenpublic and private sector and
bringing all those, whether itbe a company like Distek or
Virginia Tech, and bringingthose things together.
I think that's Scott can talkabout that all day how that's
sort of what we do is bringacademia and industry together,
(10:06):
and I think this is a greatreflection of that.
So what's kind of the?
You know we had our firstone-week workshop.
Is this something that's goingto continue or are we going to
try to keep offering this orscaling this up or what's kind
of the next steps?
Scott Lowman (10:22):
I think we definitely want to continue this
and expand.
We'll get together in the nextcouple weeks and sort of you
know recap what we did and seeareas we can improve, but the
important thing is we've done it.
Once We've got our feet wet, weknow what to expect now and the
participation has been greatwith the folks attending.
(10:45):
So I myself personally'm superhappy with how everything turned
out and it's something thatpart of our mission as economic
development and being a regionalcatalyst for regional
transformation is also tosupport industry in the region
and beyond, and this reallymeets that workforce component
of industry support.
Caleb Ayers (11:05):
That's all the questions that I have.
We'll keep it short and sweet.
Is there anything else that youguys would want to add, or
anything else you think it'simportant that people know?
Biswarup Mukhopadhyay (11:12):
I could comment that this is a
collaboration and so we are verycareful building the first one.
So we reached out to folks weknew and folks we did not know,
to folks we knew and folks wedid not know.
The focus has been that notonly they are great as a
(11:32):
technology, scientist, equipment, but do they have the
temperament for the teaching,teaching this kind of thing to
sometime uninitiated.
Our goal ultimately to reach apopulation from high school,
community college, college andPhD.
So this kind of program shouldbe broad enough that everybody
(11:54):
will get skilled at a particularlevel that is needed for
industry.
We need everybody.
So I think we have met thatgoal, or we are very happy about
that.
We feel that we gathered a teamwho is able to train at that
particular range of folks.
Caleb Ayers (12:12):
All right, Well, yeah again, thank you all for
being here.
I think this is cool just tosee the collaboration as you all
were talking about.
So thanks for joining us today.
All right, so welcome to another episode of
Inside IALR.
Thanks for joining us.
So we have a fun one today.
Sometimes, you know, we'retalking about internship
programs, Sometimes we'retalking about manufacturing
processes and today, of allthings, we're talking about
fermentation.
So we here at the Institute forAdvanced Learning and Research
housed a one-week workshop thispast week, January 13th through
(00:30):
17th, for basically trainingentry-level workers and even
some college students on sort ofthe processes of fermentation.
So I'm going to have we havefour guests today, so it'll be a
packed group.
I'm going to have each of youguys introduce yourselves.
Biswarup Mukhopadhyay (00:43):
Yeah, my name is Vishwar Mukhopadhyay.
I'm a professor of biochemistryat Virginia Tech, originally
trained as a chemist andengineer.
Biochemical engineer thenbecame microbiologist and
biochemist.
Scott Lowman (00:56):
And I'm Scott Lohman.
I am vice president of researchat the Institute for Advanced
Learning and Research and I'mhappy to participate with this
podcast.
Caleb Ayers (01:03):
And we realized today, the most frequent guest
on this podcast we've had, soexcellent.
Justin Cesmat (01:09):
And I'm Justin Sesmat.
I'm the product line managerfor our bioprocessing product
line at Distek, so we produce aline of benchtop bioreactors and
controllers which were used asthe hands-on instrument for this
training course, and mybackground is actually in
biosystems engineering.
I've done a lot of work withprocess scale-up and tech
transfer around fermentation andcell culture process.
Caleb Ayers (01:32):
This is a question, open-ended question for all of
you.
We'll keep it short and sweet.
What is fermentation, and kindof what industries is that
commonly used in?
Biswarup Mukhopadh (01:41):
Fermentation came from anaerobic processes
where some sort of a like itstarted with the alcoholic
fermentation, where productionof alcohol that's where the word
came and those processes occurin the absence of oxygen Wine is
another one, and talking aboutbeer but then those occurred in
(02:04):
large tanks or large systems andthen people started producing
product using microbes at largetanks, so similar to
operationally like alcoholproduction, but in the presence
of oxygen.
But they continue to use theword fermentation and fermenter,
although those are notoccurring in the presence of
(02:25):
oxygen, and that's caught on.
So now everything about growingmicrobes at a larger scale we
call fermentation and fermenter,but better word probably
bioreactor, which is a moreneutral term.
Caleb Ayers (02:40):
Okay, so anything with microbes you're saying,
that sort of falls under theumbrella of fermentation?
I know this was the firstworkshop we offered here.
Tell us a little bit about kindof what the week was like.
Well, first of all, I guess,who came to this workshop?
What was kind of the targetmarket for this?
Scott Lowman (02:57):
We're so thrilled to host the workshop here at the
Institute and it's a greatopportunity for us to bring
together experts like ProfessorMukagopathy from Virginia Tech,
as well as industry like thistech, and to see their wonderful
equipment.
But, importantly, we also havestudents here from community
college, from Virginia Tech, aswell as industry participants,
(03:17):
so people that are scaling up orbuilding new facilities and
they're interested in sendingemployees here to learn more
about fermentation.
So it's a week-long event, it'shands-on, it's taught by
experts and, again, it'ssomething that we're very proud
to partner with Virginia Tech toput this on.
Caleb Ayers (03:38):
So what was this week like for the students that
were here?
I mean, walk me through.
Was it a lot of classroom time,a lot of experimenting with
different kinds of technologyand hands-on?
Was it some of all of the above?
What was this week like?
Scott Lowman (03:50):
The week included both classroom and hands-on
activities.
They not only learned about thefundamentals and the principles
of fermentation in theclassroom, but they went and
then put those principles towork on machines themselves and
on various types of equipment toanalyze the products coming
(04:11):
from that fermentation.
Justin Cesmat (04:13):
And one thing for me from Distek that I really
liked about this workshop isthat we did get our hands dirty
with working on the equipment.
A lot of training coursesreally do focus a lot on theory
and lecture, which is great.
You do get a lot offoundational knowledge that way,
but really solidifying it andrunning the systems with actual
(04:34):
microbes really drives homethose concepts that we learn in
the lecture, and so having theability to go back and forth
between the two I think reallysets these students up for
understanding how the industryworks, not only from a
conceptual side, but when theyrun the small-scale bioreactors.
Those will scale to large scale, which they'll see in industry
(04:56):
as they get out into theworkforce and with kind of what
was going on this weekspecifically.
Caleb Ayers (05:02):
I heard I mean you were talking about a bioreactor.
I wasn't here, I wasn't able tocome see it that day.
Talk to me about kind of whatstudents were learning with
these reactors, what they got todo with them.
Biswarup Mukhopadhyay (05:11):
Well, a student learned that a process
originally will develop in alaboratory on a petri plate, on
a small containers like flasks,and then how to take that to a
size or a scale where you canproduce for marketing it or
selling.
So when things go from the labto the large scale, sometimes
(05:33):
things don't work out.
So how to make it work?
The large scale sometimesthings don't work out, so how to
make it work?
What are the precautions youcould take at a smaller scale
and how to scale that up?
Other option is scale down.
So envision the larger scalefrom the very beginning.
Design your experiment at asmaller scale so that way that
will be one day will be scaledup.
(05:54):
So they learn that.
And it's highlyinterdisciplinary.
So talking about microbiology,chemical engineering,
biochemistry, economics, allthose combined, and here they
learn how the process betweenthe small scale and a reactor
scale is different and in whatway it is similar.
Caleb Ayers (06:16):
I think what you guys are both talking about is
really cool, that the hands-onpart of this workshop, that it's
not just sitting in a class,it's very hands-on getting your
hands dirty, as you said andalso very multidisciplinary.
I think that kind of wraps up alot of what we try to do here
at the Institute for AdvancedLearning and Research.
We have a lot of differenttraining programs, ranging from
(06:37):
honestly elementary school evenfor STEM camps and things like
that, but middle school all theway through adult learners, and
the whole point is that it's agood mix of classroom but also
you have to do it with yourhands.
You know.
You're not just going to learnabout it in the book, you have
to do it and whether that'straining people to work for Navy
suppliers or in a middle schoolclassroom teaching them about
welding, or now in theseworkshops we're offering here,
(06:59):
they have to get their handsdirty and I like to see that.
Talk to me about kind of thecollaboration of that.
Scott, I know we've had thisidea for a while of being able
to offer this.
Talk to me about thecollaboration and sort of how we
brought this together to notjust include us but to include
Virginia Tech to include Distek,and I know there were other
companies involved as well.
So kind of talk about how thisall came together.
Scott Lowman (07:23):
So Dr Mukagopathy and I have been talking for a
number of years now about notonly the hands-on training, but
the opportunity that we havehere at the Institute to partner
with Virginia Tech to offer adifferent type of training,
something that's not only gearedtowards undergraduate and grad
students, but something thatcould include companies and
community college students orpeople wishing to change careers
(07:44):
.
We believe that thefermentation industry is growing
in Virginia.
All data indicate that thegovernor has just invested $90
million at three centers acrossthe state to increase the amount
of discovery that can lead tofermentation.
But we know that there are nota lot of support services for
those companies on the jobtraining side or on the scale-up
(08:07):
side.
So we think there's anopportunity to be both, and the
Institute's a great place to doit because we're flexible, we
have wonderful facilities andclassrooms and labs right next
to each other.
Caleb Ayers (08:17):
And for you guys at Distek.
I mean, how did you getinvolved in this?
And sort of what's the whywould you want to be involved in
something like this?
Justin Cesmat (08:24):
Yes.
So Distek, really as far as ourinstrumentation goes, one thing
that we really do emphasize isease of use, offering a system
that can be a very good trainingplatform for new scientists
that are getting intolarge-scale bioprocessing,
bioreactors, that sort of thing.
So whenever we have theopportunity to support these
(08:46):
types of training centers, wejump on them because it really
does.
It's a gap that I notice a lotwhen we're going to different
customer sites and evaluationsand universities where many of
the researchers are very muchfocused on the science and they
don't know how to take thatscience from a concept or from a
(09:08):
petri dish, as Biswarp wassaying, and taking that to a
bioreactor, and so these typesof courses really are going to
help those scientists learn howto do that work and ultimately
be more successful with theirprocess, scale up and actually
taking their projects toindustry.
So, as far as DISTEC goes,that's one thing that we really
(09:30):
pride ourselves on, and we havemany different controllers at
teaching institutions throughoutthe US.
So this IALR support is rightin our wheelhouse and we love to
help these types of programs.
Caleb Ayers (09:43):
Yeah, no, absolutely, and I know we go the
opposite way.
Where we were, I mean,technically a part of the
Commonwealth of Virginia, butwork very well.
We're bridging that gap betweenpublic and private sector and
bringing all those, whether itbe a company like Distek or
Virginia Tech, and bringingthose things together.
I think that's Scott can talkabout that all day how that's
sort of what we do is bringacademia and industry together,
(10:06):
and I think this is a greatreflection of that.
So what's kind of the?
You know we had our firstone-week workshop.
Is this something that's goingto continue or are we going to
try to keep offering this orscaling this up or what's kind
of the next steps?
Scott Lowman (10:22):
I think we definitely want to continue this
and expand.
We'll get together in the nextcouple weeks and sort of you
know recap what we did and seeareas we can improve, but the
important thing is we've done it.
Once We've got our feet wet, weknow what to expect now and the
participation has been greatwith the folks attending.
(10:45):
So I myself personally'm superhappy with how everything turned
out and it's something thatpart of our mission as economic
development and being a regionalcatalyst for regional
transformation is also tosupport industry in the region
and beyond, and this reallymeets that workforce component
of industry support.
Caleb Ayers (11:05):
That's all the questions that I have.
We'll keep it short and sweet.
Is there anything else that youguys would want to add, or
anything else you think it'simportant that people know?
Biswarup Mukhopadhyay (11:12):
I could comment that this is a
collaboration and so we are verycareful building the first one.
So we reached out to folks weknew and folks we did not know,
to folks we knew and folks wedid not know.
The focus has been that notonly they are great as a
(11:32):
technology, scientist, equipment, but do they have the
temperament for the teaching,teaching this kind of thing to
sometime uninitiated.
Our goal ultimately to reach apopulation from high school,
community college, college andPhD.
So this kind of program shouldbe broad enough that everybody
(11:54):
will get skilled at a particularlevel that is needed for
industry.
We need everybody.
So I think we have met thatgoal, or we are very happy about
that.
We feel that we gathered a teamwho is able to train at that
particular range of folks.
Caleb Ayers (12:12):
All right, Well, yeah again, thank you all for
being here.
I think this is cool just tosee the collaboration as you all
were talking about.
So thanks for joining us today.
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