Cerillo, a leader in cellular analytics, announces the release of Duet, the first standardized co-culture system that allows researchers to explore microbial and cellular interactions in real time. Designed to address challenges in microbial research, Duet offers a novel approach to studying the dynamics between different microbial populations, enabling more precise, reproducible, and reliable results in fields ranging from synthetic biology to antimicrobial resistance.
The Duet Co-culture system is poised to be a game-changer for research in areas such as synthetic biology, antimicrobial resistance, fermentation, microbiome studies, women’s health and engineering complex microbial communities. By enabling fluidic interaction between distinct microbial populations while maintaining physical separation, Duet allows researchers to explore complex microbial communities and interactions—without the typical time and cost constraints.
“We developed Duet to address the need for a system that would allow researchers to systematically investigate microbial interactions,” said Eric Mayton, CEO of Cerillo. “By providing real-time phenotypic measurements, Duet enables deeper insights into these interactions, which are crucial for understanding everything from antimicrobial resistance to community-based behaviors.”
The Duet system has already demonstrated its impact in antimicrobial resistance research, an area where understanding mobile genetic elements and drivers of resistance can lead to critical breakthroughs. Alan J. Wolfe, Ph.D., Professor of Microbiology and Immunology at Loyola University in Chicago, highlighted how Duet has accelerated his lab’s research. “Using Duet, my postdoc was able to achieve results in two weeks that would have taken two months with traditional methods,” said Wolfe. “The system has allowed us to significantly improve the efficiency of our experiments, providing us with high-quality data in a fraction of the time.”
For researchers studying phage therapy, where understanding the interactions between bacteria and bacteriophages is essential, Duet has opened new possibilities. Bryan Hsu, a researcher at Virginia Tech, emphasized how the system has made it possible to study bacterial growth curves and phage interactions more effectively. “Previously, examining phage-bacteria interactions in complex microbial communities required laborious and costly methods such as sequencing,” said Hsu. “With Duet, we can now use straightforward absorbance measurements, significantly simplifying our workflow and allowing us to collect critical data much faster.”
The Duet platform’s flexibility extends beyond microbial interaction studies. David Liu, a researcher now at Queen’s University Medical School, shared how the system has streamlined his crystallization experiments. “Duet has cut our experiment time in half and eliminated sterilization issues we faced with older systems,” Liu explained. “Its high-throughput capabilities have also allowed us to explore the role of various bacterial genera in processes like struvite stone formation more comprehensively.”
In synthetic biology, where constructing complex microbial communities is often a trial-and-error process, Duet provides clarity by allowing researchers to better understand how individual organisms interact. Steve Techtmann, Professor of Biological Sciences at Michigan Technological University, noted how the platform simplifies his work. “Duet allows us to rapidly screen for microbial interactions without the extensive downstream analyses that are typically required,” said Techtmann. “We can now design more efficient experiments and accelerate the process of building synthetic communities for specific purposes.”
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