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Adv."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,27]]},"abstract":"<jats:p>\n                    The exploration of bacteriophage diversity remains constrained by reliance on conventional plaque assays, which bias discovery toward phages that form visible plaques. We present PRISM (Phage Recovery and Investigation in Single-droplet Microenvironments), a droplet microfluidics\u2013based, plating-independent platform for high-throughput isolation, quantification, and characterization of bacteriophages. By encapsulating phage-host interactions in water-in-oil microdroplets at single-phage resolution and coupling them with fluorescence-based detection and sorting, we demonstrate PRISM\u2019s capabilities across several key applications: (i) recovery of both \u201cplaquing\u201d and \u201cnonplaquing\u201d\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Salmonella<\/jats:italic>\n                    phages from environmental samples, where nonplaquing phages were missed by conventional approaches; (ii) accurate titering of poor-plaquing phages, such as\n                    <jats:italic toggle=\"yes\">Rhodococcus<\/jats:italic>\n                    phage ReqiDocB7; and (iii) plating-independent determination of phage resistance and lysogeny frequency, with results closely matching conventional estimates. This highlights PRISM\u2019s enhanced resolution and accuracy, as well as its ability to detect nonplaquing or slow-replicating phages, underscoring the platform\u2019s power to access viral populations overlooked using conventional methods.\n                  <\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1126\/sciadv.aeb2362","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,25]],"date-time":"2026-03-25T18:00:16Z","timestamp":1774461616000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.34133\/aaas_crossmark","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["PRISM: A unified platform for phage isolation and characterization from single-droplet microenvironments"],"prefix":"10.1126","volume":"12","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9991-9409","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Han","family":"Zhang","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0022-1474","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Justin","family":"Boeckman","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Phage Technology, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."},{"name":"Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-3875-8442","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Rohit","family":"Gupte","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0009-0001-7394-426X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Ashlee","family":"Prejean","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Phage Technology, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."},{"name":"Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Jonathan","family":"Miller","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Phage Technology, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."},{"name":"Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0001-5247-7909","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Alexandra","family":"Rodier","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3878-5064","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Paul","family":"de Figueiredo","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Christopher S. Bond Life Science Center, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA."},{"name":"Department of Molecular Microbiology and Immunology, School of Medicine, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65212, USA."},{"name":"Department of Veterinary Pathobiology, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA."},{"name":"Department of Chemical and Biomedical Engineering, University of Missouri, Columbia, MO 65211, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Mei","family":"Liu","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Phage Technology, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."},{"name":"Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9494-6053","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Jason","family":"Gill","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Center for Phage Technology, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."},{"name":"Department of Animal Science, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9223-8301","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Arum","family":"Han","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."},{"name":"Department of Biomedical Engineering, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."},{"name":"Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A&amp;M University, College Station, TX 77843, USA."}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"221","reference":[{"key":"e_1_3_2_2_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1126\/science.aad6791"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_3_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1128\/mbio.01921-21"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_4_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.mib.2022.102229"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_5_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/j.virusres.2017.02.002"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_6_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/v12040410"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_7_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.3390\/ph12010035"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_8_2","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.2174\/138920110790725311"},{"key":"e_1_3_2_9_2","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"M. 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