Microfluidic sorting system for bioprospecting new antibiotics – DEINODROP

Antimicrobial molecules play a major role in modern medicine but resistance is rising and is becoming a major threat. It is therefore crucial that we find new antibiotics in the coming years. The objective of this project is to develop a breakthrough technology using droplet microfluidics for the screening of environmental microorganisms on their ability to produce new antibiotics. We will use reporter strains with reporter genes under the control of stress-induced promoters for screening millions of microorganisms per day. The novelty of the secondary metabolite responsible of the antibiotic activity in the droplet will be evaluated by mass spectrometry and the sorted cell responsible for its production will be sequenced by single-cell whole genome sequencing. The biosynthetic gene cluster producing this metabolite will be identified, cloned in BAC and expressed in bacterial chassis for heterologous expression.