Accelerate your microbiome discovery with our microbial isolation and cultivation service
How Isolation Bio’s cultivation service works:
Step 02
Consultation
Complete consultation call with an Isolation Bio scientist to discuss your samples and experiment needs
Step 04
Prospector®
We cultivate your microbes on the Prospector. The Prospector has been validated for a multitude of aerobic and anaerobic media types but is also compatible with additional types not listed.
Step 05
96-Well Plate
Isolates are transferred to 96-well plates and shipped back to you as glycerol stocks
The power of the Prospector® discovery platform
The Prospector® enables:
Isolate, cultivate, and screen the living microbiome thousands of microbes at a time.
Our high-throughput and scalable microbial cultivation array technology grows thousands of microcolonies in parallel – delivering more unique isolates in less time than traditional methods.
- Rapid generation of diverse microbial libraries
- A fully automated workflow
- Isolation of rare and slow growing microbes
The power of the Prospector® discovery platform
The Prospector® enables:
Isolate, cultivate, and screen the living microbiome thousands of microbes at a time.
Our high-throughput and scalable microbial cultivation array technology grows thousands of microcolonies in parallel – delivering more unique isolates in less time than traditional methods..
- Rapid generation of diverse microbial libraries
- A fully automated workflow
- Isolation of rare and slow growing microbes
Frequently asked questions
Can you use my prepared media?
Yes. Provide 500 mL (volume may differ based on project goals) in two or more bottles. Media must be sterile. Indicate pH and composition. We will internally validate the media before using in project. Pack very well when shipping to prevent contamination, breakage and spillage.
What media are incompatible?
To date, only LMS and LMRS are fully incompatible. Low and high pH are case-dependent and will require validation. Media below pH 6.5 and above pH 9 are less likely to be compatible.
Can you prepare media from a recipe for me?
Yes, but case dependent.
What if my selective media of choice is incompatible?
We can load the Prospector arrays with a more general medium (e.g., BHI) and then transfer from the arrays to plates that have the selective medium (e.g., LMRS). The number of successful transfers will be low, but what does transfer will likely be your target phenotype.
My media is very dark, will it be compatible?
Array growth is monitored via fluorescent signal and the color of the medium does not matter. Very dark media, such as those with high percentages of rumen fluid, cannot be used in the downstream transfer plates since we reply on visible turbidity to identify growth.
Can you enrich my sample before loading?
Yes. Provide enrichment details and any specialized reagents (e.g., sporulation factors). Enrichment will skew the community towards phenotype being enriched.
I am having trouble reviving my freezer stocks, what can I do?
Use a larger volume of inoculum of thawed and mixed freezer stock (e.g., 20 uL), spread on blood agar plates (YCFAC-blood or BHI-blood), incubate for longer period of time (one week or longer). If you know the identify of the isolate, revive under media/incubation conditions optimal for that species.