Dynamic modelling of bacteriophage production process

Bacteriophages, viruses that can infect bacteria, are promising alternatives for antibiotic treatment caused by antibiotic-resistant bacteria strains. For that reason, the production of bacteriophages is extensively studied. Mathematical modelling can lead to the improvement of bioprocess by identification of critical process parameters and their impact on the demanded product. Dynamic modelling considers a system (i.e. bioreactor or bioprocess) as a dynamic object focusing on changes in the initial and final parameters (such as biomass concentration and product formation) in time, so-called signals and treats the studied system as a “black box” that processes signals. This work aimed to develop a mathematical model that describes bacteriophage production process. As result, we created a dynamic model that can estimate the number of bacteriophages released from cells as plaque-forming units at specific time points based on the changes in the bacteria host-cell concentration. Moreover, the proposed model allowed us to analyze the impact of the initial virus concentration given by multiplicity of infection (MOI) on the amount of produced bacteriophages.