Part 1: Design a milli-fluidic device for microbial cell-culture

In this homework, we will use Autodesk Fusion 360, a 3D CAD software, to design a 3D printed micro/milli fluidic device. Please install the software using the following instruction.

Part 2: Design experimental conditions for...a microbial cross-feeding interaction?

• Find a research or journal article where researchers cultivate 2 or more microbial strains. What technology are they utilizing? How scalable is this approach to more than 2 strains? How do they address issues related to requiring multiple media?

• Propose a technology for culturing 2 or more strains. How might you innovate in this area given the paper you reviewed?

• One of the great challenges in microbiology currently is culturing “unculturable” microbes. Propose a methodology for how you might explore this significant space of uncultured microbes.

• Review an article on an artificial gut-on-a-chip technology. What scientific hypotheses are they testing with this in vitro tool? Could you propose an upgrade or innovation to their technique to enable the exploration of other scientific hypotheses? Provide an example of at least one hypothesis you would explore with your proposed system.

• One of the biggest challenges in public health is quickly detecting new disease outbreaks. How would you go about adaptively responding to new outbreaks? Biobots is using qPCR, so you need to know what you are looking for. How might you develop a technology with a more general view? Some example approaches include microfluidics and point-of-care sequencing, but what else? In particular, are there ways to look for RNA viruses like the flu and SARS-CoV2?

• Extra credit: In the hardware class you designed a fluidic device. Please either use this device as a starting point, or provide a sketch design of a fluidic device that could be used in the gut-on-a-chip system you are proposing in question 4.