Microbe is extremely abundent in nature, the size of which has a very wide coverage from nano- to micro-scale making it suitable to be processed at multi-scale level as natural " building blocks " and "chassis cell". Based on the urgent need of micro/nano bio-manufacture of microorganism, four controlling methods-- i.e. molecular template, magnetic control, microfluidics, and bio- printing --for the process suitable for microbe have been proposed to dip into the behavioral mode of microorganism and design new micro/nano functional materials by controlling directed movement and ordered arrangement of microorganism living cells. To our best knowledge, it is a promising and challenging project with originality in the field of microorganism.
This project aims at developing new methods and techniques of micro/nano manufacture based on physical/chemical/biological principles as well as establishing new ways for controlled manipulation and controllable living microorganism “cell factory”, especially focusing on exploring two new techniques—micro-fluidic and bio-printing. Through combinational and synergistic effort, it is expected be able to control the microorganism and its product from molecular to nano/micro level. Thus, the application prospect is extremely attractive, and it is highly promising to open up a new field of micro/nano manufacturing with living microorganism.
Specifically, using Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Escherichia coli as mode strains and Acetobacter xylins and Flavobacterium heparinum as function strains to investigate regulatory factors affecting the movement behavior of microorganism, nano-scale effect, surface/interfacial effect and biological effect during the biological manufacture process of microbial micro/nano robot self-assembly to reveal the underlying principle of microorganism orientation and mechanism of formation of fine structure at multi-level by inducing their unique biological function.
Hopefully, this new way will facilitate specific design of individual microenvironment, exploration of the growth, metabolism and behavior of microorganism. It is not only probable to study the behavior of the same microorganism in different micro environment, but also possible to reveal the interaction between different microbial individuals. Furthermore, optimization of culture medium for massive fermentation as well as assembly of the traditional orthogonal experiment analysis and response surface analysis into small chips can be achieved by designing and printing of the culture medium of microorganism. Finally, it will provide theoretical basis and technique support for the design of microorganism reactor and regulation of massive bio-refinery by multi-level construction of complex microorganism community.