Bacteria immobilization in a micro porous carrier by dielectrophoresis

In this paper we demonstrate immobilization of bacteria into micro-scale holes using positive dielectrophoresis (DEP). Our ultimate goal is to characterize bacteria, while precisely controlling the reaction conditions and the number of bacteria involved in the biochemical reaction, and to effectively screen them to efficiently produce useful chemicals by fermentation, such as organic acids, antibiotic drugs, and foods. We experimentally deduced that DEP frequency of 10 MHz was effective, when alive Corynebacterum glutamicum was selectively driven towards micro holes. The microfluidic device we proposed herein can be readily applicable to an efficient bacteria screening platform.