A High-Throughput Platform to Culture the Unculturables

It is estimated that 99% of bacteria on Earth do not grow under standard laboratory conditions.These unculturable bacteria are an untapped resource for the discovery of new molecules and biological products that could have a powerful influence on disciples ranging from medicine to agriculture.Unculturable microbes have been identified worldwide in many types of samples, including environmental samples like soil and water.A general platform that can be used to isolate and culture these unculturable microorganisms would be a significant step toward uncovering potential benefits that are useful in both military and civilian settings.Lynntech proposes to develop an automated, high throughput screening system that brings natural environments harboring unculturable microbes into the laboratory.This platform will be capable of processing a variety of sample matrices to result in the growth of unculturable microorganisms.The design of this system will allow for downstream detailed analysis of both newly isolated bacteria and the sample matrices from which the bacteria are derived.This new platform will ease the daunting task of analyzing the enormous number of unculturable microbes in a format that is easily manipulated to accommodate a wide range of sample matrices and growth conditions.