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Droplet Microfluidics for Microbial Biotechnology

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Microfluidics in Biotechnology

Part of the book series: Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology ((ABE,volume 179))

Abstract

Droplet microfluidics has recently evolved as a prominent platform for high-throughput experimentation for various research fields including microbiology. Key features of droplet microfluidics, like compartmentalization, miniaturization, and parallelization, have enabled many possibilities for microbiology including cultivation of microorganisms at a single-cell level, study of microbial interactions in a community, detection and analysis of microbial products, and screening of extensive microbial libraries with ultrahigh-throughput and minimal reagent consumptions. In this book chapter, we present several aspects and applications of droplet microfluidics for its implementation in various fields of microbial biotechnology. Recent advances in the cultivation of microorganisms in droplets including methods for isolation and domestication of rare microbes are reviewed. Similarly, a comparison of different detection and analysis techniques for microbial activities is summarized. Finally, several microbial applications are discussed with a focus on exploring new antimicrobials and high-throughput enzyme activity screening. We aim to highlight the advantages, limitations, and current developments in droplet microfluidics for microbial biotechnology while envisioning its enormous potential applications in the future.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Bio Pilot Plant, Leibniz Institute for Natural Product Research and Infection Biology – Hans-Knöll-Institute (HKI), Jena, Germany

    Sundar Hengoju, Miguel Tovar, DeDe Kwun Wai Man, Stefanie Buchheim & Miriam A. Rosenbaum

  2. Faculty of Biological Sciences, Friedrich Schiller University (FSU), Jena, Germany

    Sundar Hengoju, Stefanie Buchheim & Miriam A. Rosenbaum

Authors
  1. Sundar Hengoju
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  2. Miguel Tovar
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  3. DeDe Kwun Wai Man
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  4. Stefanie Buchheim
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  5. Miriam A. Rosenbaum
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Correspondence to Miriam A. Rosenbaum .

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  1. Institute of Physics, University of Augsburg, Augsburg, Germany

    Janina Bahnemann

  2. Multiscale Bioengineering, Faculty of Technology, Bielefeld University, Bielefeld, Germany

    Alexander Grünberger

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Hengoju, S., Tovar, M., Man, D.K.W., Buchheim, S., Rosenbaum, M.A. (2020). Droplet Microfluidics for Microbial Biotechnology. In: Bahnemann, J., Grünberger, A. (eds) Microfluidics in Biotechnology. Advances in Biochemical Engineering/Biotechnology, vol 179. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/10_2020_140

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