BPI Theater Interview: Nick Jackowetz, Senior Vice President and Principal Scientist, Hydrosome Labs

Hydrosome Labs is a start-up company that uses ultrafine bubble technology to redefine the potential of water across a number of industries, including the bioprocessing space. The company is based near Chicago, IL, and employs about 12 workers mostly focused on basic science and research and development (R&D).

Jackowetz defined ultrafine bubbles as being less than 1 µm in size, and typically as small as 100 nm. “These bubbles are so small [that] you can’t see them with your eye,” he said, “and they do not float.” He explained that most of the bubbles that Hydrosome creates are filled with nitrogen and some oxygen, but the R&D team is studying other gases as well. He explained that the bubbles can be used for months without losing stability.

Hydrosome makes bubbles using the principles of hydrodynamic cavitation. “With just force and pressure, we can flow water or media with cells in it through our technology,” Jackowetz said about creating the small, stable bubbles. The technology can be used to make many bubbles with large surface areas to bring nutrients and gas to cells.

Jackowetz said that ultrafine bubble technology is new to the biotechnology space but is already being used in fermentation with yeast and bacteria cells. Hydrosome infuses bubbles into fermentors to move nutrients and gases among cells rapidly. Using this technology, Jackowetz said that cells “can grow faster and achieve higher biomasses overall.”

Ultrafine bubble technology can help bioprocessing companies optimize their processes to different degrees, depending on the cell line in use. His team worked with the Integrated Bioprocessing Research Laboratory (IBRL) at the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, achieving 25% faster fermentation in one cell line to provide significant savings in time and cost. “We also noticed biomass differences,” he said. “As we use these ultrafine bubbles to grow cells, the finished titer and finished biomass [were] twice as high. We had twice as many cells as the control fermentation.”

Jackowetz said that suppliers of bioreactors and fermentors have shown interest in working with Hydrosome to enhance the efficacy of their existing products. He said that Hydrosome can help deliver bubbles with great efficiency to cells. And because the bubbles are processing aids that don’t persist into final products, Jackowetz doesn’t anticipate any major regulatory setbacks.

“Literally, wherever water is, there’s a place for ultrafine bubbles,” Jackowetz said.

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