Fig. 8.

Droplet‐based microfluidic devices. A. A microfluidic device divided into two parts. Part I (blue) consisted of three inlets that created an aspartate chemical gradient, allowing the sorting of E. coli depending on their chemotactic response. The bacteria that were attracted by aspartate passed through a channel to part II (pink), where droplets were generated by mixing the fluorinated oil FC‐40 with medium and bacteria. The droplets were imaged, analysed and cultured. Adapted from (Dong et al., 2016). B. Single bacteria were encapsulated in droplets containing antibiotics and a fluorescent viability indicator. Subsequently, there was an in‐line incubation that permitted bacterial replication, followed by fluorescence detection in which droplets were either empty (blue circles) or included bacteria (pink circles). Adapted from (Kaushik et al., 2017). C. A design starting with a droplet generation system by a T‐junction followed by a serpentine with hydrophilic patterns of different sizes where bacteria attached. Biofilm formation was based on two phases. First, there was a seeding process in which P. aeruginosa PAO1 was encapsulated and sessile droplets adhered to hydrophilic patterns. The second phase consisted of generating droplets of media to allow bacterial growth until biofilms developed. Adapted from (Jin et al., 2018). All figure panels were reproduced/adapted with permission from the corresponding publisher and/or journal. Credits for these figures are provided in the References section of the manuscript.