Our goal is to build realistic wet-lab models of the human microbiome with a focus on the gut microbiome. So far, we have used our 3D droplet printing technology and droplet networks to structure microbial communities of the gut at micron-scale lengths. We found that structure controls function determining whether competing communities thrived, collapsed or one strain dominated.

Selected publications

• 3D Microtumors Representing Ovarian Cancer Minimal Residual Disease Respond to the Fatty Acid Oxidation Inhibitor Perhexiline. X. Yang, M. Artibani, Y. Jin, A. Aggarwal, Y. Zhang, S. Muñoz-Galvan, E. Mikhailova, L. Rai, N. Mukherjee, R. Krishna Kumar, A. Albukhari, S. Ma, L. Zhou, A. A. Ahmed, and H. Bayley, Adv. Healthc. Mater. 14, 2404072 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1002/adhm.202404072

• Droplet printing reveals the importance of micron-scale structure for bacterial ecology. R. Krishna Kumar, T. Meiller-Legrand, A. Alcinesio, D. Gonzalez, D. A. I. Mavridou, O. J. Meacock, W. J. P. Smith, L. Zhou, W. Kim, G. S. Pulcu, H. Bayley, K. R. Foster, Nat. Commun. 12, 857 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-021-20996-w