Construction of a microrobot system using magnetotactic bacteria for the separation of Staphylococcus aureus

Magnetotactic bacteria exhibit superiority over other bacteria in fabricating microrobots because of their high motility and convenient controllability. In this study, a microrobot system is constructed using magnetotactic bacteria MO-1 and applied in pathogenic separation. The feasibility of this approach is demonstrated using Staphylococcus aureus. The MO-1 magnetotactic bacterial microrobots are fabricated by binding magnetotactic bacteria MO-1 with their rabbit anti-MO-1 polyclonal antibodies. The efficient binding of MO-1 magnetotactic bacterial microrobots to Staphylococcus aureus is corroborated by phase contrast microscopic and transmission electron microscopic analyses. Further, a microfluidic chip is designed and produced, and the MO-1 microrobots are magnetically guided toward a sample pool in the chip. In the sample pool, Staphylococcus aureus samples are loaded on the microrobots and then carried away to a detection pool in the chip, suggesting the microrobots have successfully carried and separated pathogen. This study is the first to demonstrate bacterial microrobots carrying pathogens and more importantly, it reflects the great potential of using magnetotactic bacteria to develop magnetic-guided, auto-propelled microrobots for pathogen isolation.