Fabrication of culture-based biochips for detecting microorganisms in environmental samples

In this paper, we describe a culture-based biochip for detecting microorganisms in environmental samples in an improved, timesaving, and cost-efficient manner. The biochips use the paraffinophilic nature of microorganisms to rapidly detect and differentiate them in sewage samples collected from wastewater treatment plants. A new method of depositing paraffin was developed to fabricate the biochips. The developed technique uses butanol solvent to keep paraffin liquid during spin-coating and thick photoresist for patterning. Using this approach, paraffin layers of 5-70 μm have been successfully fabricated and patterned. These biochips were used to demonstrate rapid, 5-min detection of microorganisms responsible for reactor foaming in wastewater treatment.