Conventional biological orbital shakers have substantial drawbacks that include low volumetric capacities, limited oxygen transfer capability and difficulty in mixing viscous liquid cultures.  A novel mixing technology has been developed to overcome these limitations by applying low-frequency, high intensity acoustic energy to agitate liquid cultures.  This new technology has been incorporated into a new incubator system offered by Applikon Biotechnology.  This advanced technology is a significant improvement over orbital shaker/incubator devices, as it has been shown to dramatically enhance oxygen transfer, as well as substantially improve bulk mixing for microbial cultures.  Combined with the novel air-pumping (Oxy-Pump^TM, Applikon Biotechnology, Inc.) stopper, oxygen transfer rates up to 6-fold higher than orbital-shaken cultures can be achieved using the technology.  Culture experiments utilizing an E. coli HB101 strain engineered to express Green Fluorescent Protein (GFP) were used to compare orbital shakers (400rpm) to the acoustic mixing technology.  Using a rich culture medium described by Fogleman et al. (Biochem. Eng. J 17:175, 2004), peak biomass levels and GFP expression levels were found to be 4-fold and 14-fold higher in the acoustic mixing technology system compared to orbital shakers. Additional studies using Pseudomonas fluorescens, Bacillus subtilis, Aspergillus oryzae, and Penicillium raistrickii have all shown enhanced performance using the acoustic mixing.  This new technology has substantial potential to enhance the productivity of a wide range of microbial culture systems.