Control of Microbial Growth in Alginate/Polydopamine Core/Shell Microbeads

Abstract

Microbial microencapsulation not only protects microorganisms from harmful environments by physically isolating them from the outside media but also has the potential to tailor the release profile of the encapsulated cells. However, the microbial release has not yet been controlled tightly, leading to undesired detrimental exposure of microorganisms to the outside. In this work, we suggest a simple method for controlling the cell release by suppressing the microbial growth in the microbeads. Alginate microbeads, encapsulating yeast cells, were coated with ultrathin but robust polydopamine shells, and the resulting core/shell structures effectively reduced the growth rate, while maintaining the cell viability.

Keywords: encapsulation; gels; microbeads; nanostructures; polydopamine.