Advancing droplet-based microbiological assays: optofluidic detection meets multiplexed droplet generation

Microbiological assays are crucial in understanding microbial ecology and developing new bioproducts. Given the significance of these assays, there is a growing interest in developing high throughput experimentation methods capable of assay multiplexing to enhance the accuracy and efficiency. In this study, we integrate a multiplexed droplet generation set-up into an optofluidic detection chip to facilitate rapid and high throughput analysis of microbiological assays. The optofluidic detection set-up at the same time enables fast and sensitive assessment of droplet condition and content, providing analysis scalability in a high throughput manner. Employing the integration, we produced unique fluorescence barcoded droplets containing defined concentrations of various carbon sources, allowing the simultaneous investigation of microbial growth and metabolic capacity under different experimental conditions. We successfully validated the robustness of the established setup in analyzing and distinguishing different fluorescence barcodes. Our findings highlight the potential of the integrated platform for a broader range of applications in high throughput drug screening, environmental monitoring, and microbiology research.