High-Throughput Identification of Bacteria-Repellent Polymers via Microarray Screening

Place a sterilized, agarose-coated microarray slide with multiple polymer spots into a multiwell plate. The agarose minimizes non-specific bacterial binding.

Add a mixed bacterial culture to the slide and incubate it with gentle agitation.

Bacteria secrete distinct adhesion proteins that bind to favorable polymer spots, resulting in stronger bacterial attachment and colonization over time.

Conversely, repellent polymers resist protein adsorption and reduce bacterial attachment.

Rinse the slide with phosphate-buffered saline or PBS to remove loosely bound bacteria.

Add DAPI to stain the DNA of surface-attached bacteria.

Wash the slide with PBS, dry it, and seal it with an adhesive coverslip.

Sterilize the outer slide surface with ethanol.

Capture bright-field images to locate the polymer spots. Then, switch to fluorescence mode to detect the fluorescence on the polymer spots.

Polymer spots that exhibit reduced fluorescence indicate minimal bacterial attachment and are identified as bacteria-repellent polymers.

After culturing and preparing inocula for the microarrays, according to the text protocol, place the UV sterilized polymer microarrays in rectangular four-well plates and add six millil