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Der-Ming Chang

Publications and source records attributed to Der-Ming Chang.

3 recordsLinked to original sources

Medium optimization for polysaccharide production of Cordyceps sinensis.

As a potential anticarcinogenic agent, polysaccharides from Cordyceps sinensis have been demonstrated to possess strong antioxidation activity. The aim of the present research was to study the optimal medium to produce polysaccharides of C. sinensis by using response surface methodology (RSM). The composition of optimized medium for polysaccharide production calculated from the regression model of RSM was 6.17% sucrose, 0.53% corn steep powder, 0.5% (NH4)2HPO4, and 0.15% KH2PO4 at pH 4.44, with a predicted maximum polysaccharide production of 3.17 g/L. When applying this optimal medium, the maximum polysaccharide production was 3.05 and 3.21 g/L in a shake flask and a 5-L jar fermentor, respectively. When the pH was controlled at a higher level such as pH 5.0, both cell growth and polysaccharide production were inhibited. A low pH of 2.85 was required for maximum production of polysaccharides.

Carbohydrate Metabolism↗

Transgenic expression of decoy receptor 3 protects islets from spontaneous and chemical-induced autoimmune destruction in nonobese diabetic mice.

Decoy receptor 3 (DCR3) halts both Fas ligand- and LIGHT-induced cell deaths, which are required for pancreatic beta cell damage in autoimmune diabetes. To directly investigate the therapeutic potential of DCR3 in preventing this disease, we generated transgenic nonobese diabetic mice, which overexpressed DCR3 in beta cells. Transgenic DCR3 protected mice from autoimmune and cyclophosphamide-induced diabetes in a dose-dependent manner and significantly reduced the severity of insulitis. Local expression of the transgene did not alter the diabetogenic properties of systemic lymphocytes or the development of T helper 1 or T regulatory cells. The transgenic islets had a higher transplantation success rate and survived for longer than wild-type islets. We have demonstrated for the first time that the immune-evasion function of DCR3 inhibits autoimmunity and that genetic manipulation of grafts may improve the success and survival of islet transplants.

Animals↗

The snowball effect in fed-batch bioreactions.

The bioreactor will play an important role in future biological manufacturing. For economic profit, important profiles of the feed rate in fed-batch cultures have been discussed. Unfortunately, the optimal feed rate is less robust. In these studies there exists the snowball effect in a substrate-inhibited bioprocess, in which substrate is accumulated due to uncertain parameters in the model or feed-rate error. The snowball effect also exists in multi-substrate-limited processes. In further studies, the interaction between the substrates has been higher in essential substrates than in growth-enhancing substrates. In a typical fed-batch bioreactor, the amount of the product can be reduced to 1% or less when the snowball effect arises. A new control structure, i.e., an off-line optimized feedforward controller added to a gain-scheduling PI(2)D feedback controller, is proposed to eliminate the troublesome snowball effect. The proposed control strategy recovers the yield up to 95%. Moreover, the robustness of the proposed control structure is demonstrated by simulation.

Algorithms↗