Microbial encapsulation in formulations and microfluidics for factory-on-a-chip applications.

在工业生物技术中，测试高通量或新工艺可能非常具有挑战性。对工具的需求很大，这些工具可以提供快速测试不同参数的能力，然后才能将其用于升级。微流体技术可以完美地用于这些目标。该项目将在芯片实验室应用中研究食品配方中细菌的微流体辅助区室化，以控制微生物相互作用。多级微流控装置的开发将用于模拟食品加工的芯片上的工厂。需要在高通量芯片上的实验室设备中提供多种微生物物种的制剂，以辅助微生物诊断;然而，它们的发展受到每种微生物物种所需的不同条件的挑战，为避免这些系统的干扰和稳定性，在制定过程中需要进行区分。不同的配方将是该项目的研究内容之一，此外，该项目将集中研究在开发的配方中含有不同种类细菌的系统，研究细菌与细菌和细菌与基质的相互作用，并开发控制细菌释放的机制。细菌在不同处理中的反应，例如热梯度，也将与芯片的不同制造方法并行研究，例如软光刻，3D打印。我们的目标是开发建模工具，用于描述我们的实验室观察和预测未经测试的配方中的相互作用。标准化这些配方将促进微生物在芯片实验室设备中的应用。此外，在不同配方中了解细菌的相互作用和控制细菌的释放，将允许扩大到工业加工和在食品加工中利用多种微生物物种。

In industrial biotechnology, testing high throughput or new processes can be very challenging. A great demand exists for tools, which can provide the ability to rapidly test different parameters before being able to use them in upscaling. Microfluidic technology can be utilized perfectly for such goals. The project will investigate microfluidic-assisted compartmentalization of bacteria in food formulations for controlling microbial interactions, in lab-on-a-chip applications. Development of multistage microfluidic setups will be used to simulate a factory on a chip for food processes.There is need for formulations delivering multiple microbial species in high throughput lab-on-a-chip devices assisting microbiological diagnostics; however, their development is challenged by the different conditions required for each microbial species, the compartmentalization needed within the formulation to avoid interference and the stability of these systems. Different formulations will be one of the things to be investigated in the project.Moreover, the project will focus on systems containing different kind of bacteria in the developed formulations, investigating bacteria-bacteria and bacteria-matrix interactions and develop mechanisms of controlled bacterial release. Responses of bacteria in different treatments e.g. thermal gradient, will also be investigated in parallel with different fabrication methods of the chips e.g. soft lithography, 3D printing. We will aim to develop modelling tools for describing our laboratory observations and predicting interactions in untested formulations. Standardizing such formulations will advance applications of microorganisms in lab-on-a-chip devises. Furthermore, understating interactions and controlling release of bacteria in different formulations, will allow upscaling to industrial processing and utilization of multiple microbial species in food processes.