Those unstudied organisms are biologys dark matter, Quake says. Like the dark matter that astronomers can only infer must exist in the universe, these organisms have never been studied directly. Quake and his colleagues hope their new technology will change that.

We are hoping to open a whole new chapter in how one understands the microbial universe, Quake said. Microfluidic tools can give us direct access to this dark matter, Quake says.

Quakes research lies at the nexus of physics, biology, and biotechnology. His microfluidics chips, which he designs to tackle problems in fields including structural genomics, systems biology, microbial ecology, and synthetic chemistry, are akin to having a fully automated laboratory on a postage stamp-sized wafer. Remember the early days of electronics with all of those big vacuum tubes and wires" Next came the transistor and finally the silicon chip, which dramatically revolutionized computers and modern electronics. Microfluidics is following the track of silicon chips and promises to revolutionize biology in the same manner.

The microfluidic chip designed by Quake and his colleagues for the current study is equipped with tiny chambers and valves that allow researchers to isolate microbes at the nanoliter scale. Because each microbe is isolated in a vanishingly small volume of liquid, the concentration of its genetic material within that solution is actually quite high meaning Quake and his colleagues can easily amplify and analyze the genome of an individual cell, eliminating the need to persuade the organism to multiply in a laboratory culture. The chip offers the potential to discover untold new species of microbes lurking within deep sea vents, ordinary dirt, toxic sludge, or virtually any environment.

To demonstrate the power of the new device, the scientists first used it to target a possible
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Contact: Jennifer Michalowski
michalow@hhmi.org
301-215-8576
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
19-Jul-2007