Abstract Jorge Palos-Chavez

Abstract: Modeling yeast growth kinetics and flows in fermentation

Fermentation provides an intriguing example to investigate how non-motile Brewer's yeast cells (S. Cerevisae) collectively influence their environment to become dispersed and suspended in the fluid, thus indirectly influencing their own motion. Similar behavior has been noted in other fermenting microorganisms implicated in gastrointestinal pathologies. Therefore, studying yeast suspensions may offer insights into this peculiar form of cellular motility. We aim to develop a first principles motivated model which couples yeast metabolic kinetics to the resulting fluid flow over the course of the fermentation process. The task is complicated by the multiphase nature of the fluid. In this talk, I will describe our progress in this investigation.