Three research groups, a biotech company, and two leading research experts as external advisers conform the project team.

The Group of Control of Complex Systems at the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (GCSC-UPV) is a systems engineering and control group with long experience of applications to bioprocess and biomedical modeling and control. The issues of uncertainty and nonlinear behaviour are pervasive throughout them. Application of interval and possibilistic frameworks to metabolic flux analysis, and macroscopic modeling compatible with underlying metabolic networks are some of the system biology-related topics in which the group has recently got relevant results.

The Process Engineering Group at the Institute of Marine Research of the National Research Council (IIM-CSIC) has relevant expertise in robust parameter estimation of nonlinear dynamic models, optimization (local, global; single and multi- objective) and optimal control, advanced control, including robust and non-linear model predictive control and dynamic simulation of hybrid lumped/distributed systems. This team has achieved remarkable results in new optimization methods for parameter estimation in biochemical pathways; a novel computational procedure for design of optimal dynamic experiments, with applications in systems biology (cell signaling, metabolic and regulatory pathways); robust numerical methods for dynamic optimization of biosystems; and a procedure for robust control of diffusion-reaction phenomena in biosystems.

The Group of Multivariate Statistics Engineering at Universidad Politécnica de Valencia (GIEM-UPV), has a significant background in: (i) extraction of relevant biological information from proteomics data (microarrays) using statistical methods; (ii) latent-based multivariate statistical models for monitoring, fault detection and diagnosis, prediction and optimization of complex industrial processes from different fields (steel, petrochemical, ceramic tile,…). The group results include new statistical methods for bioinformatics have been developed; new efficient missing data algorithms, tools for multivariate fault diagnosis and multivariate image analysis, and a joint research work done with GCSC-UPV on multi-phase framework for dynamic processes.

Biopolis S.L. is a biotechnological company that offers its services both to industries, such as the food and feed sector, agrochemical, chemistry, pharmaceutical and environment, as well as to public and private research centres. Biopolis S.L. combines the research and development know-how of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) with the business management experience and production capacity of its industrial and financial partners. Bioplis S.L. counts on highly qualified and extensively skilled personnel in the areas of Biochemistry, Molecular biology, Microbiology, Cell cultures, Food technology, Genetic engineering, Microbial metabolite production, Strain selection and collection, Biological process development, and Fermentation process optimization and purification of metabolites.

– Dr. H. De Battista will collaborate in observers and controllers design 

– Dr. D. Ramón will collaborate as scientific advisor in biological and biotechnological relevant goals.

– Dr. Ditlevsen will collaborate in the development of methods for Bayesian inference 

– Dr. Onno E. de Noord will collaborate as a scientific advisor for adaptive sensor system models and NIR monitoring.