Projects

Cultivation is the gold standard for pathogen identification in medical microbiology. However, it is a time consuming method which often prevents rapid and precise diagnosis of infectious diseases. Moreover, the vast majority of bacterial species found in clinical samples or the environment is considered to be uncultivable in the lab. Single-cell analysis allows for molecular characterization of individual bacteria and thereby bypasses the cultivation step. Thereby, new species and genes from even uncultivable bacteria can be identified and further this strategy offers the potential for rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases. In SiBaGem we will utilize the Single-Cell Printer (SCP) technology to develop highly automated assays for genomic and transcriptomic analysis of individual bacterial cells. Further, we will investigate the generation of picoliter droplets which is essential for the SCP technology: In detail we will look at (i) the electrostatic neutralization of droplets, (ii) a method for high throughput droplet sorting, and (iii) the controlled co-crystallization of a MALDI matrix for subsequent single-cell typing with a novel mass spectrometer. The goal of the SiBaGeM consortium is to develop a laboratory device for single-cell genomics and a single-cell mass spectrometer for rapid diagnosis of infectious diseases.