Microfluidic-Based Microbial Culture

Dear colleagues,

The inability to replicate essential aspects of cell microenvironments using traditional culturing methods (e.g., culture flasks and agar plates) has resulted in the culturability of a limited number of microorganisms found in various ecosystems. This shortcoming has prodded the design of new microfluidic-based technologies to efficiently cultivate microbes in defined arenas, commonly made of oil or polymeric shells. Nanoliter-sized emulsions, droplet-based confinements, and microcapsules are now being generated to sequester and grow cells under new environmental conditions. Furthermore, these microbial systems enable the high-throughput detection and assessment of microbial dynamics and pathogenesis.

This special issue will highlight the nanoculture systems employed for the mechanistic understanding of microbial growth and community dynamics. It will discuss downstream applications of microfluidic-based techniques for identifying microorganisms. We welcome the submissions of research articles, communications, reviews, perspectives, and methodologies covering the broad range of design and applications of novel microbial microsystems used to detect, cultivate, and study microorganisms.

Dr. Tagbo H. R. Niepa
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Micromachines is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Emulsion
• Droplet
• Microcapsule
• Nanocultures
• Microbiome
• Microbial growth
• dynamics
• Detection.