Biofilms in hydrogel core-shell fibers

This paper describes a hydrogel microfiber encapsulating bacteria using an axisymmetric microfluidic device that creates co-axial laminar flow. Since the encapsulated bacteria proliferate at high density in the core of the microfiber, they easily form biofilms; these films are suggested to be important for the cell viability and high-level bacterial secretion. Here, we succeeded in preparing densely packed bacteria in the hydrogel microfiber, and found they proliferated and formed biofilm. We believe this microfiber will be a useful material in the field of bioreactors and microbial sensors.