| dc.description.abstract | Cellular heterogeneity is a fundamental property of organisms that help them to adapt and thrive in different changing environmental conditions. Therefore, approaches are necessary to study cellular processes at a single cell resolution. One of the rapidly evolving technologies is microcontact printing (μCP) which is a simple, fast, cost-effective and reliable method for preparation of microarrays. Bacterial microarrays are used to deposit bacteria on a solid substrate in regular and well-defined positions. They are used to study variations of bacterial cells and their responses are also analysed. Currently, AFM is widely used for cellular studies of different bacteria by measuring the forces driving cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions on a single cell basis.
The thesis work was focused on immobilisation of E. coli cells by microarray imprinting. To achieve this, PDMS stamps with circular spots of different diameters were prepared. Chemicals known to support bacterial attachment like PLL, mannan and PD were applied on top of PDMS stamps and deposited on PEGylated glass surfaces. E. coli cells were added to the patterned surfaces.
The micro-contact printing of PLL-FITC was successful on both clean and PEGylated glass surfaces. E. coli cells were successfully immobilised on PEGylated glass surfaces with PLL spots whereas mannan and PD spots on PEGylated glass surfaces did not produce strong immobilization of E. coli cells. The obtained result demonstrated that it is possible to deposit E. coli cells on PEGylated glass surfaces on PLL spots. | |
