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

EAGER：培养未培养的：用于环境微生物生长和分离的定制微流体系统

• 批准号: 1048133
• 负责人: Cullen Buie
• 金额: $ 30万
• 依托单位: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2010
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2010-09-01 至 2012-08-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1048133&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: EAGER; Culturing; Uncultured; Custom; Microfluidic

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.

通过使用新技术，微生物学领域得到了发展。近年来，聚合酶链式反应和高通量DNA测序迅速推动微生物学摆脱了过去对可培育性和形态分类的依赖。然而，尽管获得全基因组相对容易，但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，许多微生物在共生过程中发挥作用，经常交换代谢物来维持自己的新陈代谢。这项工作提出，通过开发技术来促进微生物的合养生长，同时保持它们的空间隔离，可以显著加强对微生物逐个成员的了解。这些问题将通过创造具有多孔壁的微流控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。建议的系统将使用一种新的实施方式来制造，这是一种公认的电泳沉积(EPD)过程。这项研究开发的制造技术将对微生物学以及微电子机械系统(MEMS)和微流控领域产生重大影响。这一进展将改变以前无法培养的细菌和古菌的培养方式，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)指导学生，将EPD纳入麻省理工学院的实验室课程，以及通过霍华德·休斯医学院本科生研究奖学金(HHMIUF)计划在Girguis实验室培训本科生。