“…These properties are difficult to replicate in a bulk liquid culture or on an agar plate. The availability of microfluidic, micropatterning, and nanofabrication techniques that allow for the replication of key physical and chemical features of natural environments has, however, enabled many researchers to build bacterial communities to study their interactions 12,13,14 and to develop synthetic environments that mimic natural conditions 4,15,16,17,18,19,20 .…”