Cerillo, a biotechnology company at the forefront of developing advanced research platforms for the study of the microbiome, hosted demonstrations of the company’s new co-culture duet system at ASM Microbe 2023.
Cerillo’s co-culture system will enable researchers to observe and study individual microbial populations in real time and measure the growth of one microbial population alongside other populations. The system’s porous barrier can physically isolate populations while maintaining fluidic contact, allowing researchers to mimic natural microbiome conditions and study the interactions between microorganisms.
The co-culture system is also scalable since it can be read in multiple microplate readers, each wirelessly connected to the company’s analytic software. This wireless feature can also help researchers capture and analyze growth data as it happens, enabling them to monitor and adjust their experiments in real time.
Until now, researchers faced the constraints of limited off-the-shelf co-culture options, demanding substantial investments of time and resources in developing custom systems for their studies. “Cerillo is dedicated to liberating microbiome researchers from the constraints of conventional laboratory technologies,” says Eric Mayton, CEO of Cerillo. “Our new co-culture system is a game-changer since it is the world’s first scalable, user-friendly, and cost-effective co-culture system.”
Applications
Cerillo’s co-culture system enables researchers to:
- Mimic natural conditions: Microorganisms in the environment often exist in complex communities, where they interact with each other. Cerillo’s co-culture system allows researchers to mimic these natural conditions and study the interactions between microorganisms.
- Improve understanding of microbial interactions: Cerillo’s co-culture system can provide insight into how microorganisms interact with each other. For example, one microorganism may produce a compound that benefits another microorganism, or one microorganism may inhibit the growth of another. These interactions can be difficult to study in isolation.
- Identify novel compounds: Our system can also be used to identify novel compounds that are produced by microorganisms. For example, one microorganism may produce a compound that is only active in the presence of another microorganism.
- Develop new therapies: Cerillo’s co-culture system can be used to screen for potential therapeutics by testing the ability of a compound to inhibit the growth of a pathogenic microorganism in the presence of a beneficial microorganism.
Features and Benefits
- multiplexed plate accommodates 18 duets
- physically accessible wells enable population sampling during and after experiments
- compatible with other automation systems, giving you the freedom and flexibility to run additional assays on different platforms
- effective for quick proofs-of-concept, and also preconfigured for higher-throughput work, making it suitable for a wide range of experiment types
- scalable, enabling high-throughput experiments for faster results and comprehensive data analysis
- small and robust to harsh conditions of incubators and anaerobic chambers
- easily access your data without physical contact with your plate reader and manual memory cards