Process for isolating microbiologically active material

Abstract

Molecules or cells of materials exhibiting a microbiological activity, suppression or interaction of interest are isolated from a large population of similar molecules, cells or the like. The activity of the microbiologically active molecules or living matter of interest is measured by suspending the population in a liquid medium capable of forming a gel. The resultant suspension is formed into droplets which are caused to gel. The gel droplets (GMDs) are treated to effect desirable alteration of the microbiologically active material and the amount of metabolites or reaction products of the desired alteration within each of the gel droplets. Alternatively, incubation is carried out such that each GMD initially containing one cell contains many, a microcolony, which can be tested for desirable properties while retaining sufficient viable cells for further growth and harvesting for further tesing and/or production. The gel droplets are then separated based upon the measured or sensed characteristic, metabolite or reaction product.

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.