Related Experiment Video
Updated: May 11, 2026

Co-culture of Living Microbiome with Microengineered Human Intestinal Villi in a Gut-on-a-Chip Microfluidic Device
Published on: August 30, 2016
The human gut chip "HuGChip", an explorative phylogenetic microarray for determining gut microbiome diversity at
William Tottey1, Jeremie Denonfoux, Faouzi Jaziri
1EA CIDAM 4678, Clermont-Université, Université d'Auvergne, Clermont-Ferrand, France.
Abstract:
Evaluating the composition of the human gut microbiota greatly facilitates studies on its role in human pathophysiology, and is heavily reliant on culture-independent molecular methods. A microarray designated the Human Gut Chip (HuGChip) was developed to analyze and compare human gut microbiota samples. The PhylArray software was used to design specific and sensitive probes. The DNA chip was composed of 4,441 probes (2,442 specific and 1,919 explorative probes) targeting 66 bacterial families. A mock community composed of 16S rRNA gene sequences from intestinal species was used to define the threshold criteria to be used to analyze complex samples. This was then experimentally verified with three human faecal samples and results were compared (i) with pyrosequencing of the V4 hypervariable region of the 16S rRNA gene, (ii) metagenomic data, and (iii) qPCR analysis of three phyla. When compared at both the phylum and the family level, high Pearson's correlation coefficients were obtained between data from all methods. The HuGChip development and validation showed that it is not only able to assess the known human gut microbiota but could also detect unknown species with the explorative probes to reveal the large number of bacterial sequences not yet described in the human gut microbiota, overcoming the main inconvenience encountered when developing microarrays.
Related Concept Videos
iChip
Introduction to the Human Microbiota
Modern Molecular Taxonomy
Development of Human Microbiota
Evolutionary Relationships through Genome Comparisons
Methods to Assess Microbial Communities

