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Application of droplet-based methods enables (i) faster detection, (ii) increased sensitivity, (iii) characterization of the level of heterogeneity in response to antibiotics by bacterial populations, and (iv) expanded screening of the effectiveness of antibiotic combinations. Hereby, we discuss the key steps and parameters of droplet-based experiments to investigate antimicrobial resistance. We also review recent findings accomplished with these methods and highlight their advantages and capacity to yield new insights into the problem of antimicrobial resistance.

Academic microfluidics has decisively shifted in recent years from the research on phenomenology and proof-of-concept fluidic functionalities to the developments oriented at applications with biology, medicine and biotechnology in prime focus. Significant efforts are made to demonstrate that microfluidics can be used in unspecialized laboratories to perform previously mundane tasks faster and easier, or to venture into new research areas that were unavailable or unattractive when only classical means of microbiology or biotechnology were employed. Here we review a variety of biological experiments recently performed in microfluidic assays. We categorize the microfluidic systems by the key role they play in the biological experiments as: (i) controlled reaction chambers, (ii) high-throughput arrays, or (iii) micro-positioning systems. We also discuss the outlook for further development and applications of microfluidics in biological sciences.