Droplet Microfluidics for Microbial Biotechnology

Hardware, Software, and Wetware Codesign Environment for Synthetic Biology

“…Software tools, e.g., Cello version 1.0 [32], can serve as "genetic Bioelectronic, droplet-based microfluidic devices hold promise to serve as high-throughput, parallelizable screening platforms for many applications in synthetic biology, such as selecting optimal microbiomes. For example, artificial environments, synthetic metabolic pathways [48], and synthetic communities can be developed and screened in search of specific metabolites, growth relations, or intercellular interactions. Individual droplet microfluidic components have been developed to enable a wide range of functionalities, such as droplet generation [49], droplet sorting [50], droplet merging [51], droplet picoinjection [52], and droplet sensing [53] (Figure 4(a)).…”

Antimicrobial resistance: progress and challenges in antibiotic discovery and anti‐infective therapy

“…In addition, alternative approaches permit bacterial growth in their natural environment using, for example, the isolation chip (iChip) technology, which is based on the use of semi‐permeable membranes that permit free diffusion of specific nutrients and growing factors from the environment into the bacterial culture (Lewis, 2020; Miethke et al ., 2021). In the context of searching for specific culture conditions for the growth of uncultured antibiotic‐producing bacteria, extraordinary progress has been made with the development of high‐throughput microfluidics approaches (Hengoju et al ., 2020; Matilla, 2021). Within this expanding research field, microfluidics permits partitioning complex bacterial communities into droplets containing a single cell.…”

“…These droplets function as micro‐reactors where physiological and biochemical parameters can be monitored and optimized. Remarkably, such systems have successfully identified culture conditions for novel antibiotics producers (Hengoju et al ., 2020; Matilla, 2021). For instance, droplet‐based systems mimicking environmental conditions in situ have enabled the cultivation of a higher microbial diversity as compared with conventional culture techniques, including prolific antibiotic producers (Mahler et al ., 2021).…”

“…For instance, droplet‐based systems mimicking environmental conditions in situ have enabled the cultivation of a higher microbial diversity as compared with conventional culture techniques, including prolific antibiotic producers (Mahler et al ., 2021). Importantly, droplet microfluidics coupled to mass spectrometry has been effectively used for the detection and monitoring of secondary metabolites in bacteria (Hengoju et al ., 2020) and the rapidly improving performance of analytical chemistry techniques is expected to provide a major boost to microfluidics‐based approaches for antibiotic discovery.…”

Microfluidics for Biotechnology: Bridging Gaps to Foster Microfluidic Applications

“…Moreover, the integration into work routines and the broad acceptance in the biotechnology community can be facilitated by establishing the necessary competences to handle these platforms and gradually improve functionality and the distribution of microfluidic knowledge. A possible short-cut for fasten the integration into lab-routines would be the yet missing commercially available plug and play solutions (Hengoju et al, 2020).…”