EAGER: Culturing the Uncultured: Custom Microfluidic Systems for Growth and Isolation of Environmental Microbes

微生物学领域由于新技术的应用而得到了发展。近年来，PCR和高通量DNA测序迅速推动微生物学摆脱了历史上对可培养性和形态分类的依赖。然而，尽管获得全基因组相对容易，高通量技术并没有显著提高我们在实验室培养新微生物的能力。众所周知，许多微生物在合胞中起作用，频繁交换代谢物以维持自身的代谢。这项工作提出，通过开发技术来促进微生物的共生生长，同时保持它们的空间隔离，可以显著增强对微生物的理解，一个成员一个成员。这些问题将通过创建具有多孔壁的微流体细胞培养系统来解决，该系统允许细菌在物理隔离的同时进行化学交流。所提出的系统将使用一种新的实现电泳沉积（EPD）过程。本研究开发的制造技术将在微生物学、微机电系统（MEMS）和微流体学界产生重大影响。这一发展将改变以前无法培养的细菌和古细菌的培养方式，并成为微生物学研究的分水岭。主要研究人员将利用几个现有的合作伙伴关系来影响麻省理工学院和哈佛大学的教育环境。例如，通过麻省理工学院暑期研究计划（MSRP）为学生提供指导，将EPD纳入麻省理工学院的实验课程，以及通过霍华德休斯医学研究所本科生研究奖学金（HHMIUF）计划在Girguis实验室培训本科生。

The field of microbiology has been advanced through the use of new technologies. In recent years, PCR and high throughput DNA sequencing have rapidly propelled microbiology away from its historical dependence on cultivability and morphological classification. However, despite the relative ease with which whole genomes are being obtained, high throughput technologies have not significantly improved our ability to cultivate novel microorganisms in the laboratory. It is well known that many microbes function in syntrophy, exchanging metabolites frequently to sustain their own metabolism. This work proposes that significant enhancements can be made to understanding of microbes, member by member, by developing technologies to foster their syntrophic growth while maintaining their spatial segregation. These issues will be addressed by creating microfluidic cell culture systems with porous walls that allow bacteria to communicate chemically while being physically isolated. The proposed systems will be fabricated using a novel implementation of the well established process of electrophoretic deposition (EPD). The fabrication technique developed in this research will have high impact in microbiology, as well as the micro electromechanical systems (MEMS) and microfluidics communities. This development will transform the way cultivation of previously uncultivable bacteria and archaea is approached, and be a watershed for microbiological research. The principal investigators will leverage several existing partnerships to impact the educational environments at MIT and Harvard. Examples include student mentoring through the MIT Summer Research Program (MSRP), incorporating EPD into a laboratory course at MIT, and training of undergraduates in the Girguis laboratory through the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Undergraduate Research Fellowship (HHMIUF) program.