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Updated: Feb 2, 2026

Bacterial Cell Culture at the Single-cell Level Inside Giant Vesicles
Published on: April 30, 2019
Direct Observation of Bacterial Growth in Giant Unilamellar Vesicles: A Novel Tool for Bacterial Cultures
Masamune Morita1, Kaoru Katoh1, Naohiro Noda1
1Biomedical Research Institute National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Center 6 1-1-1 Higashi Tsukuba Ibaraki 305-8566 Japan.
Abstract:
Invited for this month's cover picture are Dr. Masamune Morita, Dr. Kaoru Katoh and Dr. Naohiro Noda from the Biomedical Research Institute at the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST, Japan). The cover picture shows direct monitoring of real-time activity of bacterial growth at the single-cell level inside giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs); entrapped single bacterial cells are actively increasing to a great number of cells inside GUVs. This study shows new applications for GUVs, and can offer a novel tool for culturing bacteria in bacterial studies. Read the full text of their Communication at https://doi.org/10.1002/open.201800126.
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