Utilising microfluidic cell culture to study strict anaerobic microorganisms in the AnaeroGrow platform

PEER Award Holder: Dr Ciara Keating, University of Glasgow

Anaerobic digestion biotechnologies harness the power of microorganisms for the treatment of waste and wastewater. These microorganisms work together to degrade organic material in the absence of oxygen and produce methane gas as an end product; which can be used as a source of energy. But the technology is vulnerable to uncertain environmental conditions that impede the microbial communities and result in variable performance and/or poor methane yields. Anaerobic microbiology and anaerobic digestion research urgently need a transformative approach to the methodologies employed so that we may engineer the microbes to be more robust, more efficient and to produce more high-quality methane gas.

We know that to understand these microorganisms in detail we must understand their physiology and activity in response to environmental cues. But the tools available to analyse these complex microbial populations is limited, laborious and low throughput; relying on pressurised glass vials and sacrificial sampling. These are microorganisms that cannot withstand even minute levels of oxygen. To keep pace with rapidly advancing global challenges including diminishing water and energy supplies globally we must rapidly advance our capacity to probe anaerobic microbial communities. As part of an EPSRC-funded Frontiers in Engineering grant, Dr. Ciara Keating collaborated with biomedical engineers for the development of the first integrated anaerobic culturing platform to grow and monitor anaerobic microorganisms in real time. This has allowed us the opportunity to investigate these fastidious species at a scale rarely attenable.

University of Glasgow (UoG) will host members of the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Uppsala (SLU) for a scientific workshop, most notably Prof. Anna Schnürer a leader in anaerobic culturing, microbial cross-feeding and bioenergy production. During this visit Prof. Anna Schnürer will deliver a plenary seminar on her work. Early career academics from the Water and Environment group at UoG will give a brief introduction to their research and Dr. Ciara Keating will deliver bespoke training in this technology.