Experimental Design in Microbiology

The field of predictive microbiology is rapidly widening and ranges from bioreactor engineering to the modeling of foodstuff degradation and contamination. In this chapter, we point out how important the choice of experimental conditions is. We also briefly describe some tools (methodology of experimental research) that can be used to design optimal experimental strategies with respect to the study's aim. Emphasis is given on the optimization of microbial metabolite production, with an example showing the screening of factors and another illustrating the use of the response surface methodology.