Microorganisms are often used to produce chemicals. These processes are usually very complicated. It is hard to completely understand every detail of the process, when living organisms are involved. Therefore, bioreactors are often seen as 'black boxes' that can only be effectively exploited with a lot of experience. Scientists have succeeded in completely analyzing the penicillin production process, simulating it on the computer and making it predictable -- a paradigm shift for bioprocesses.
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