Constructing Synthetic Ecosystems with Biopolymer Fluitrodes

Abstract

Modeling the complex interactions among organisms found within microbiomes is of great interest for the development of new biological technologies. Challenges remain in culturing cells of multiple species with spatial resolutions similar to microbial communities. Here, a fluitrode concept in microfluidics using biofabrication of functional biopolymers is demonstrated to efficiently assemble multiple cell populations in 3D hydrogels of spatial and biological relevance. The fluitrodes are freestanding biopolymer membranes that, similar to electrodes in transmitting electrons, transmit ions and small molecules with spatiotemporal programmability. The individually addressable fluitrodes allow for controlled delivery of nutrients and chemical molecules of interest in situ, live imaging of biological events, effluent collection to perform ex situ diagnostics, and finally, release of cells for downstream molecular and biochemical analyses. This novel coculturing platform can model in vitro ecosystems comprised of multiple species or kingdoms to elucidate cell–cell interactions in complex communities and aid in high throughput screening for drug discovery.