Murray Moo-Young | Faculty | Chemical Engineering

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	Murray Moo-Young Distinguished Professor Emeritus Office: E6 1008 Phone: 519-888-4567 ext. 84006 Email: mooyoung@uwaterloo.ca Degrees: BSc, London; MASc, Toronto; PhD, London

Research Interests

Areas of Biochemical Engineering, Industrial Biotechnology, Environmental Management.
With the ongoing rapid advances in the Life Sciences, there is an increasing need for bioprocessing strategies in bio-manufacturing industries, environmental bioremediation, agriculture and bio-medicine. This research program is directed at the development and application of biotechnology innovations for the design, operation, control, optimization and scale-up of bioreactor and bio-purification systems required in these sectors. Projects are conducted in a multidisciplinary group of scientists and engineers. To date, the group has produced over 340 papers, 11 books and 9 patents. There are three broad generic areas of activity outlined below. As executive editor of Biotechnology Advances I keep abreast of the current developments and trends.

Bioprocessing Fundamentals and Principles

Quantitative evaluations of mass, heat and momentum transfer in multiphase contacting devices used in bioprocessing. Concerns include oxygen transfer, circulation rates, gas hold-up, solids suspension, and rheological impact. Bioreactor types include: mechanically-stirred tanks with turbine and hydrofoil impellers, with or without draft tubes; airlift columns with internal and external loops, with or without static-mixers; membrane systems. Bio-purification procedures include cell-disruption, filtration, and chromatography. Computer-aided techno-economic sensitivity analyses are conducted for batch, fed-batch and continuous cultures in integrated designs.

Bioprocessing Applications in Biomanufacturing

Biological agents are used to produce various products including pharmaceuticals, therapeutics, diagnostics, food ingredients, enzymes, and biofuels. The systems serve as models for a range of biokinetic behavior (genetic instability, protease problems, etc) and physical constraints (shear sensitivity, insoluble substrates, etc). Biocatalyst immobilization strategies use entrapment, attachment, turbulence-dampening matrices, etc. Bioconversions are optimized with upstream and downstream operations. At present, case studies include microbial fermentations (bacterial, yeast, fungal), animal cell cultures (CHO, hybridomas), and enzymatic biotransformations (with lipase).

Bioprocessing Applications in Bioremediation

Natural bioremediation processes are enhanced by pretreatment strategies with chemical oxidation and photocatalysis. The intent is to initially reduce toxic pollutants in soil, water, air to chemical intermediates which can be completely mineralized by biodegradation. At present, case studies target biomass residues, manures and recalcitrant PAHs. Also, innovative techniques are being evaluated for the optimal operation of biofiltration units for bioremediation of VOCs by manipulation of bed-packing configuration and optimized nutrient-supplementation feeding protocols.

Selected References

K. S. Sukhija, M. E. Pyne, S. Ali, V. Orr, D. Abedi, M. Moo-Young, and C. P. Chou, "Develop an extended genomic engineering approach based on recombineering to knock-in heterologous genes to Escherichia coli genome", Molecular Biotechnology, in press (2012)
L. Zhang, C. P. Chou, and M. Moo-Young, "Disulfide bond formation and its impact on the biological activity and stability of recombinant therapeutic proteins produced by Escherichia coli expression system", Biotechnology Advances, 29, 923-929 (2011)
L. Zhong, K. Srirangan, J. Scharer, M. Moo-Young, D. Fenner, L. Crossley, C. H. Honeyman, S.-Y. Suen, and C. P. Chou, "Developing an RNase-free bioprocess to produce pharmaceutical-grade plasmid DNA using selective precipitation and membrane chromatography", Separation and Purification Technology, 83, 121-129 (2011)
L. Zhong, J. Scharer, M. Moo-Young, D. Fenner, L. Crossley, C. H. Honeyman, S.-Y. Suen, and C. P. Chou, "Potential application of hydrogel-based strong anion-exchange membrane for plasmid DNA purification", Journal of Chromatography B, 879, 564-572 (2011)
L. Zhang, M. Moo-Young, and C. P. Chou, "Molecular manipulation associated with disulfide bond formation to enhance the stability of recombinant human CD83", Protein Expression and Purification, 75, 28-39 (2011)
L. Zhang, N. Narayanan, S. R. Brand, C. A. Nicolette, M. Baroja, J. Arp, H. Wang, M. Moo-Young, and C. P. Chou, "Structural identification of recombinant human CD83 mutant variant as a potent therapeutic protein", Protein Expression and Purification, 73, 140-146 (2010)
Zhang, L., M. Moo-Young, and C. P. Chou, "Effect of aberrant disulfide bond formation on protein conformation and molecular behavior of recombinant therapeutics", Pure and Applied Chemistry, 2010, 82, 149-159
Gheshlaghi, R., J. M. Scharer, M. Moo-Young, and C. P. Chou, "Metabolic pathways of Clostridia for producing butanol", Biotechnology Advances, 2009, 27, 764-781
Wang, L. P; Ridgway, D; Gu, T. Y; Moo-Young, M, Kinetic Modeling of Cell Growth and Product Formation in Submerged Culture of Recombinant Aspergillus niger. Chem. Eng. Commun. 2009, 196, (4), 481-490
J. A. Grove, H. Zhang, W. A. Anderson and M. Moo-Young. Estimation of carbon recovery and biomass yield in the biofiltration of octane, Env. Eng. Sci., 26, 1497–1502 (2009)
F Alani, J Grove, W Anderson, M Moo-Young. Mycophenolic acid production in solid-state fermentation. Biochem Eng J, 44, 106 – 110, (2009)
Y Xu, L Zhang, W Yao, S. Yedahalli, S Brand, M Moo-Young, and CP Chou, Bioprocess Development for Production, Purification, and Structural Characterization of Recombinant hCD83ext as a Potential Therapeutic Protein. Protein Expression & Purification, 65, 92-99, (2009)
FW Bai, XM Ge, WA Anderson and M Moo-Young. Parameter Oscillation Attenuation and Mechanism Exploration for Continuous VHG Ethanol Fermentation, Biotech & Bioeng, 102/1, 113-121 (2009)
Y. Xu, A. Yasin, R. Tang, J. M. Scharer, M. Moo-Young, and C. P. Chou. Heterologous expression of lipase in Escherichia coli is limited by folding and disulfide bond formation, Appd Microbiol Biotechnol, 81, 79-87, (2008)
Alwis, Dutton, Scharer, Moo-Young, Statistical methods in media optimization for batch and fed-batch animal cell culture, Biopro Biosys Eng, 30, 107-113 (2007)
Dutton, Scharer, Moo-Young, Cell cycle phase dependent productivity of a recombinant Chinese hamster ovary cell line, Cytotechnol, 52, 55-69 (2006)
Moo-Young, Chou. Bioprocessing strategies for cell-factory systems. Biotechnol Focus, 9/7, 10-13 (2006)
Gheslahgi, Scharer, Douglas, Moo-Young, Medium Optimization for hen egg white lysozyme production by recombinant A niger using statistical methods. Biotech Bioeng, 90, 754-760 (2005)
Bai, Chen, Zhang, Anderson, Moo-Young, Continuous ethanol production under heavy gravity conditions. J Biotech, 110, 287-293 (2004)
Grove, Kautola, Javadpour, Moo-Young, Anderson, Assessment of changes in microorganism community in a biofilter. Biochem Eng J, 18, 111-114 (2004)