DOI: https://doi.org/10.29363/nanoge.eimc.2021.016
Publication date: 5th July 2021
Various microfabrication techniques have been applied to produce microfluidic devices, including wet etching, reactive ion etching, hot embossing, and conventional machining. Despite obvious advantages like the convenience of use and the possibility for fast prototyping, steoreolithography (SLA) 3D printing has not yet been widely applied to produce microfluidic devices. In recently years, the price of SLA printers dropped massively, and the rapid expansion of 3D printing in medical and dental applictions made a spectrum of biocompatible resins accessible. Taking advantage of this, we developed and 3D printed a device using a heat-resistant hydrophilic resin to study bacterial dispersal by active swimming. Our device, named the “bacterial bridge”, consists of two sampling wells connected by two verticle capillaries and a bridge-like structure that can establish along it a stable liquid film of 0.12mm in width and several centimeters in length. The elevation created by the two capillaries between the sampling wells and the liquid film can efficiently reduce passive flow. The “bridge” device thus only allows motile bacteria to pass from one sampling well to the other by active flagella-propelled swimming, and prevents the dispersal of non-motile cells. Our 3D-printed device can be quickly produced at low material cost (less than 0.5 USD per piece) and autoclaved for repeated use. It can be wide applied as an abiotic control with stable physicochemical properties and fixed structue to study dispersal and interactions of microorganisms in water-unsaturated complex enviorenments like the soil. Besides the “bridge” device, we have made several other micro-fluidic devices by 3D printing. Our work demonstrates the potential for much wider applications of modern SLA 3D printing in microbial ecology research, especially for fast prototyping and producing customized devices, which is highly valued under the current pandemic circumstances with disrupted supply chains around the world.
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