Online Monitoring of Volatile Products of Bioprocess Using Differential Ion Mobility─A Proof of Concept with 1-Undecene

Advancements in synthetic biology have driven significant progress in chemical production using engineered microbes, yet challenges persist in characterizing strains and identifying optimal process conditions. This study introduces differential mobility spectrometry (DMS), a technique that ionizes and separates gaseous molecules in high and low electric fields, as a novel approach to monitor bioprocesses. We applied DMS to a bioprocess unit producing alpha-olefin 1-undecene, an industrially relevant platform chemical, through genetically engineered Acinetobacter baylyi ADP1 cells. DMS effectively captured the dynamic nature of 1-undecene production, demonstrating its potential as a nontargeted method for real-time bioprocess studies and optimizations.