Microfluidic biochip and integrated diffractive optics for bacteria growth control and monitoring

Abstract

We present a simple and inexpensive method for enabling bacterial cell capture in a 2D array of traps, such that their growth can be monitored under controlled dynamic environments through diffractive optics integrated into a microfluidic chip. As an example, we demonstrate the feasibility for E. coli capture and expansion within the monolayer trap; the resulting increase in the diffraction signal is consistent with the cells' exponential growth rate.