PROJECT SUMMARY / ABSTRACT A collaborative, multidisciplinary research project is proposed to develop and validate an innovative platform to study separate phage species and to study the interactions between bacteriophages and their host bacteria. We will create a microfluidic capillary electrophoretic (CE) platform to separate bacteriophage from complex microbiota while sorting them into enriched fractions. This system will be used to culture, manipulate, image and characterize phage electrophoretic behavior on a molecular level, and to study fundamental cellular processes that occur during the interaction between the phage and microbial cells. The platform supports direct injection and measurement of microphysiological cultures and infections and supports direct analysis and imaging of phage, phage-host and host mixtures from complex microbiota. This platform maintains viability of the organisms, sorts and enriches rare populations from complex mixtures in order to study fundamental molecular processes by direct measurement and identification of novel phage populations. The development of the proposed phage platform will provide a new tool for the manipulation of other viral components of the microbiota.

NARRATIVE: This proposal deals with large barriers in bacteriophage discovery. We will separate mixtures of bacteriophages using electrophoresis. We will determine the physico- chemical basis of fractionation. The technology developed here has obvious implications in antimicrobial development and as a census of phage genes for molecular exploitation. Thisproposal is in line with NIH mission statement to seek fundamental knowledge of the nature of living systems.