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Updated: Apr 11, 2026
Patterning of Microorganisms and Microparticles through Sequential Capillarity-assisted Assembly
Published on: November 4, 2021
The Design of Simple Bacterial Microarrays: Development towards Immobilizing Single Living Bacteria on Predefined
Nina Bjørk Arnfinnsdottir1, Vegar Ottesen1, Rahmi Lale2
1Biophysics and Medical Technology, Department of Physics, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, NO-7491 Trondheim, Norway.
Abstract:
In this paper we demonstrate a procedure for preparing bacterial arrays that is fast, easy, and applicable in a standard molecular biology laboratory. Microcontact printing is used to deposit chemicals promoting bacterial adherence in predefined positions on glass surfaces coated with polymers known for their resistance to bacterial adhesion. Highly ordered arrays of immobilized bacteria were obtained using microcontact printed islands of polydopamine (PD) on glass surfaces coated with the antiadhesive polymer polyethylene glycol (PEG). On such PEG-coated glass surfaces, bacteria were attached to 97 to 100% of the PD islands, 21 to 62% of which were occupied by a single bacterium. A viability test revealed that 99% of the bacteria were alive following immobilization onto patterned surfaces. Time series imaging of bacteria on such arrays revealed that the attached bacteria both divided and expressed green fluorescent protein, both of which indicates that this method of patterning of bacteria is a suitable method for single-cell analysis.
