High-throughput experimenting
High Throughput Experimenting (HTE) refers to the massive parallelization of experiments. Specifically, we apply rapid large-scale analysis of either proteins, multiple component cascades or even whole bacterial cells. The throughput is usually determined by the reaction volume, which ranges from microliter (low throughput) to femtoliter (high throughput) scale, or by the separation principle.
In our case the reaction parameters of a system or – even more importantly – the genetic starting material for a protein (system) or a cell are systematically or randomly varied. They are then read out via a specific phenotype and investigated at the same time in order to identify interesting study objects (screening) or even to gather insights into the dynamics for the entire population. HTE is a technique that allows the execution of large numbers of experiments in parallel while requiring less effort per experiment when compared to traditional means of experimentation. HTE is becoming standard practice in biotechnology, biology and pharmaceutical laboratories across the world.
Highly parallelized separation
The frequency at which libraries are sampled is still the rate-limiting step in high-throughput experimentation. We have developed a method for space- and time-efficient processing of very large sample numbers (107 per batch) and using nanoliter reactors (nLRs) as carriers. The protocol relies on gas-formation of nLR embedded microbes as a marker and buoyancy as readout. We use the method for both screening and selection protocols of recombinant microbes, generated by metabolic engineering. The system allows for phenotypic characterization and isolation of putative hits in a single operation, enabling large sampling rates exceeding 105 Hz (or >109 samples per day).
