Batch cultivation of bacterial cells in nanoliter reactor array

We have developed a microfluidic reactor array enabling systematic assessment of bacterial cells in a batch culture condition. This system enables creating a series of different growth conditions by preserving different growth factors inside nanoliter reactors and cultivating bacterial cells inside the reactors. From a single on-chip experiment, we determined the effects of carbon sources on bacterial phenotypes, i.e. the pattern of growth curves with Escherichia coli K-12. We demonstrated the systematic assessment of inhibition effect of antibiotics on the growth of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. The present system could be used for systematic phenotypic study of different types of bacterial cells.