title: Aqueous two-phase system technology for patterning bacterial communities and biofilms.
abstract: We describe a novel method which makes use of polymer-based aqueous two-phase systems to pattern bacterial communities inside Petri dishes. This method allows us to culture submillimeter-sized bacterial communities in spatially distinct spots while maintaining a degree of chemical connectedness to each other through the aqueous phase. Given sufficient time, these bacterial cultures develop biofilms, each corresponding to the footprint of the droplet spot. This method can be used to study the interactions between bacterial communities and biofilms spotted adjacent to each other. Furthermore, it can be extended to study the interactions between different bacterial communities and an underlying epithelial cell layer.
authors.affiliation: School of Nano-Bioscience and Chemical Engineering, Ulsan National Institute of Science and Technology, Ulsan, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Mohammed
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Dwidar
authors.forename: Shuichi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Takayama
authors.forename: Robert J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Mitchell
mesh_terms: D018407:Bacterial Physiological Phenomena; D001431:Bacteriological Techniques; D018441:Biofilms / Q000254:growth & development*