ABSTRACT
Traditional methods to assess microbial cells during suspension culture require laborious and frequent manual sampling. Approaches to automate sampling and assessment utilize dedicated, sophisticated equipment and suffer from a lack of temporal resolution and sampling efficiency. In this study we describe a simple microfluidic device that allows microbial cells to be sampled from suspension culture and rapidly slowed and concentrated for single-cell imaging on a standard laboratory microscope. We demonstrate a device that: â¢slows and concentrates microbial cells, specifically budding yeast, sampled from suspension culture and improves imaging of individual cells by concentrating them in a single focal planeâ¢provides imaging quality and temporal resolution that is capable of monitoring dynamic spatiotemporal processes, such as nuclear localization of a proteinâ¢is inexpensive and simple enough to be fabricated and used in laboratories equipped for standard molecular and cellular biology.
