Supplementary Information

Supplementary Fig. 1 and Supplementary Methods.

Reporting Summary

Supplementary Video 1

Suboptimal cell trapping visualized by bright-field microscopy . B. subtilis PY79 cells improperly trapped in microhole arrays where microhole width (>1.1 µm) is too large to immobilize most cells. Lateral diffusive motion in the holes (wobbling) can be observed in ~50% of trapped cells. The video shows acceptable but not excellent cell loading efficiency. A few cells can be seen sitting on top of rather than within microholes, likely those that did not wash off during sample preparation. Video was recorded at 100 Hz and plays in real time. Scale bar, 10 µm.