Patent ID: 7510864

Claim:
A device for determining and controlling cell growth or growth rate of cells in a fermentation reaction comprising: a fermentation vessel containing said fermentation reaction, wherein said vessel further comprises: a combination of sensors including at least a full-spectrum probe spectrometer or a multiple wavelength light-to-frequency converter, and pH and temperature sensors that measure a combination of conditions of said fermentation reaction in real time; a combination of controls of said fermentation reaction including at least a temperature control device; a stirring mechanism capable of completely mixing contents of said fermentation vessel; a metering or dispensing pump, and one or more variable-intensity, broad-spectrum light sources that radiate in at least the visible spectrum; and ports within said fermentation vessel for insertion of said combination of sensors and controls; and a computer configured for multiple function data acquisition from said combination of sensors; a data acquisition interface, which may be internal or external to the computer, that creates a digital pathway for said multiple functional data acquisition; and a software protocol that provides real-time instruction to said combination of controls based on said multiple function data acquisition by: (i) determining an optimum growth rate for the fermentation reaction at a set of established parameters by detecting an inflection point; (ii) oscillating a parameter of the set of established parameters; (iii) determining a growth rate tolerance value for the parameter to determine a decision criteria; (iv) looping back to step (ii) during the fermentation reaction by invoking an override function and repeating steps (ii) and (iii) for at least one other parameter of said set of parameters; (v) combining all decision criteria determined; and (vi) determining the cell growth or growth rate of cells in the fermentation reaction from the combined decision criteria.