By
employing the use of a specially designed glass chip with tiny compartments,
Caltech researchers have provided a way to target and grow specific microbes
from the human gut. This is a key step in understanding which bacteria are
helpful to human health and which are harmful.
Researchers
started looking for bacterial species that contained a set of specific genetic
sequences. To grow these microbes, the researchers turned to SlipChip, a
microfluidic device. SlipChip is made up of two glass slides, each the size of
a credit card, that have tiny etched grooves which become channels when the
grooved surfaces are stacked atop one another. When a sample is added to the
interconnected channels of the SlipChip, a single "slip" of the top
chip will turn the channels into individual wells, with each well ideally
holding a single microbe. Once sequestered in an isolated well, each individual
bacterium can divide and grow without having to compete for resources with
other types of faster-growing microbes.
The
researchers then grew a compartment full of his target microbe in the SlipChip,
and then they split the compartment in half. One half contains the live organism
and the other half is sacrificed for its DNA to confirm that the sequence is
that of the target microbe.
For
further details, refer to the following paper:
Posted by Tim Sandle
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