In order to grow unculturable environmental microbes, Kim Lewis and colleagues derived the iChip. What is the purpose of this device?

A) Antibiotics from the environment could pass into the chamber.
B) Gram-positive organisms could not pass the semipermeable membrane.
C) The semipermeable membranes let environmental organisms into the agar.
D) Organisms from the environment grew in the chamber.
E) Nutrients and growth factors made by organisms in the soil diffused into the chamber.