I am cultivating K.pneumoniae biofilms in a microfluidic flow cell system, in three-channel flow cells for 24 and 48 hours under constant flow using a peristaltic pump. However, the organism is growing back throughout the entire system i.e. the bubble traps, marpene tubing and media reservoir. Is there any way to prevent undesired growth throughout the system?
Upon inoculation, I inject into each flow channel and invert the flow cell for approximately 1h to faciliate adherence to a substratum (Glass slide). Any help would be appreciated.
You could try UV light on the areas where you don't want to have growth. There may be issues with free radical production in the media so it may take some tuning to get it right. You could also try either heating or cooling those areas to either kill off everything in those areas or significantly reduce growth. Heating and cooling solutions in microfluidics devices can create bubble headaches of course.
Best of luck!
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Engineering
- Materials Engineering