Assessing Bacterial Motility Using a Microfluidic Device

Source: Scheidweiler, D., et al. Combining Fluidic Devices with Microscopy and Flow Cytometry to Study Microbial Transport in Porous Media Across Spatial Scales. J. Vis. Exp. (2020).This video demonstrates the use of a microfluidic device to quantify bacterial motility through a porous matrix composed of randomly arranged pillars. Fluorescently labeled bacteria are introduced into the device, imaged via microscopy as they move through the porous matrix into the observation channel, and analyzed to generate a breakthrough curve (BTC).