Authors:

Mallory A Luse

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About Paper:

The study of microbiome function, the biochemical activity of microbial communities, requires high throughput experimental platforms to robustly characterize assembly and biological interactions. One way to achieve sufficient scale is to use liquid handling robots which offer efficient and reproducible programmable experiments, but even as an increasingly common research tool, they have yet to be adapted to handle solid materials. Generalizable methods have been devised to adapt a liquid handling robot to control a magnet, enabling work with solid substrates to study biofilm formation. Many microbes grow on solid surfaces which are ubiquitous in 'built environments,' including hydroponics facilities. For this application, a method has been developed to generate polyvinyl chloride (PVC) coated stainless steel spheres (1, 1.5, and 3 mm diameter) while validating the surface properties against PVC used in hydroponics growing troughs. Through experimentation with the following fabrication parameters: dip coating vs. impregnation with iron fillings, solvent used in coating (THF vs. PVC), PVC concentration (6% vs. 8%), multiple coats, and annealing conditions; early results indicate promising success for dip coating with a coat of 8% followed by 6% PVC as it had been the most effective in maintaining an even coating around the exterior. More in-depth testing with solvent coatings and annealing processes is underway based on these results. The short-term goal is to automate the analysis of biofilm growth on PVC surfaces for developing safer hydroponic and home water systems, while long-term this aims to adapt liquid-handling robots to study the microbiome on diverse solid materials. Keywords: Microbiome; Solvent Coating; Dip Coating; Liquid Handling Robots

Source:

Purdue University / 2024

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Co-authors:

Mallory A Luse