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Droplet-Based Screening for the Investigation of Microbial Nonlinear Dose–Response Characteristics System, Background and Examples

Micromachines 2020 17 citations ? Citation count from OpenAlex, updated daily. May differ slightly from the publisher's own count. Score: 30 ? 0–100 AI score estimating relevance to the microplastics field. Papers below 30 are filtered from public browse.
Jialan Cao, Felix Richter, Michael Kastl, Jonny Erdmann, Christian Burgold, David Dittrich, Steffen Schneider, J. Michael Köhler, G. Alexander Groß

Summary

This paper describes how droplet-based microfluidics can be used to characterize how microorganisms respond to different concentrations of chemical effectors, revealing nonlinear dose-response relationships. The technique could help assess how plastic-associated chemicals affect microbial communities at environmentally relevant concentrations.

Droplet-based microfluidics is a versatile tool to reveal the dose-response relationship of different effectors on the microbial proliferation. Traditional readout parameter is the temporal development of the cell density for different effector concentrations. To determine nonlinear or unconventional dose-response relationships, data with high temporal resolution and dense concentration graduation are essential. If microorganisms with slow microbial growth kinetics are investigated, a sterile and evaporation-free long-term incubation technique is required. Here, we present a modular droplet-based screening system which was developed to solve these issues. Beside relevant technical aspects of the developed modules, the procedural workflow, and exemplary dose-response data for 1D and 2D dose-response screenings are presented.

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