Study visit to the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge

Witold Postek, Ph.D., visited the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard in Cambridge, MA in the USA for three weeks. The goal of the visit was to learn a novel droplet-based method developed at the Broad Institute. The method uses three fluorescent dyes in a range of concentrations. The combinations of concentrations are unique in a given experiment and can serve to barcode a droplet with given reaction conditions. The droplets are paired in an array of microwells and identified by their barcodes. Then the droplets are merged with an electric pulse. This method was used during Witold’s visit to encode antibiotic concentrations and to study the growth of bacteria with different antibiotic concentrations. The mid-term goal of the project is to study antibiotic interactions with different bacterial strains, and the ultimate goal is to provide a platform that will be able to screen for the activity of proposed new antibiotics or antibiotic adjuvants. The method described is transferable and after some adjusting can be used at the Institute of Physical Chemistry of the PAS, either for antibiotic studies at the single-cell level or for e.g. screening of reaction conditions for mammalian cells, e.g. for leukemia cells.

Visitor

Witold Postek

Dates

Feb. 8 – 29, 2020

Location

Cambridge, USA