Viable bacterial cell patterning using a pulsed jet electrospray system

Abstract

In the present study, drop-on-demand two-dimensional patterning of unstained and stained bacterial cells on untreated clean wafers was newly conducted using an electrospray pulsed jet. We produced various spotted patterns of the cells on a silicon wafer by varying the experimental conditions, such as the frequency, flow rate, and translational speed of the electrospray system in a two-dimensional manner. Specifically, the electrospray’s pulsed jet of cell solutions produced alphabetical patterns consisting of spots with a diameter of approximately 10 µm, each of which contained a single or a small number of viable bacteria. We tested the viability of the patterned cells using two visualization methods. This pattering technique is newly tested here and it has the potential to be applied in a variety of cell biology experiments.