Isolation chip

The Isolation chip (or ichip) is a method of culturing bacteria. Using regular methods, 99% of bacterial species found in nature are not able to be cultured as they do not grow in conditions made in a laboratory, a problem called the great plate count anomaly.¹ The ichip instead cultures bacterial species within its soil environment using tiny diffusion chambers.² The soil is diluted in molten agar and nutrients such that only a single cell, on average, grows in the ichip's small compartments or wells, hence the term "isolation". The chip is then enclosed in a semipermeable plastic membrane and buried back in the dirt to allow in nutrients not available in the lab.³ With this culturing method, about 50 to 60 percent of bacterial species are able to survive.³

This is of particular relevance to drug discovery. Notably, the bacterial species Eleftheria terrae, which makes the antibiotic teixobactin that has shown promise against many drug-resistant strains like methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, was discovered using the ichip in 2015. In addition to antibiotics, it is argued that anti-cancer agents, anti-inflammatory and immunosuppressives (which have previously been discovered from bacteria) as well as potential energy sources could be discovered.¹

The ichip was developed by the drug discovery company NovoBiotic Pharmaceuticals, founded by Kim Lewis and Slava Epstein.³