Abstract
We describe a low cost, configurable bacterial culture device for characterizing the evolutionary pathway of antibiotic resistance. This device continuously monitors the evolving bacterial growth. To validate the platform, we measure the stepwise acquisition of trimethoprim resistance in Escherichia coli MG 1655, and integrate the platform into a multiplexed microfluidic platform for investigating cell morphology and antibiotic susceptibility. The approach can be up-scaled to laboratory studies of antibiotic drug resistance, and is extendible to other adaptive evolution and bacterial culture experiments.