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Determining phage titer using droplet microfluidics
For almost a century, the double layer agar (DLA) plaque assay has been the “gold standard” for determining the titer of a bacteriophage suspension. In our new approach we encapsulate bacteria and phages at varying ratios into emulsion droplets and “digitally” monitor killing of the bacteria by the phages in individual droplets. This enables to extract phage counts from the droplet statistics. Notably, the technique also enables monitoring dynamics of the phage-host interactions.
Givelet, L., von Schönberg, S., Katzmeier, F. et al. Quantifying phage-host dynamics using droplet microfluidics. Nat Commun 17, 3857 (2026).