PoreLab lecture on Life in a tight spot: how bacteria move in porous media

PoreLab is pleased to announce the next PoreLab Lecture this Wednesday at 13:30 (Central Europe) on Zoom. To join, please follow the link below the abstract or add this event to your calendar by opening the attached calendar ics-file.

 

When: 28 April 2021 at 13:30 (CET)

Where: online (read below)

Title : Life in a tight spot: how bacteria move in porous media

Speaker: Dr. Sujit Datta

Affiliation: Assistant Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering, Princeton University, NJ

Abstract:

Diverse processes in healthcare, agriculture, and the environment rely on bacterial motility in heterogeneous porous media; indeed, most bacterial habitats-e.g., biological gels, tissues, soils, and sediments-are porous media. However, while bacterial motility is well-studied in homogeneous environments, how confinement in a porous environment impacts bacterial transport remains poorly understood. To address this gap in knowledge, we combine microscopy, materials fabrication, and microbiology to investigate how E. coli moves in 3D porous media. By probing single cells, we demonstrate that the paradigm of run-and-tumble motility is dramatically altered by pore-scale confinement. Instead, we find a new mode of motility in which cells are intermittently and transiently trapped as they navigate the pore space; analysis of these dynamics enables prediction of bacterial transport over large length and time scales. Further, by developing a new 3D printing approach, we design multi-cellular communities with precise control over the spatial distribution of bacteria. Using this approach, we show that concentrated populations can collectively migrate through a porous medium-despite being strongly confined-and develop principles to predict and direct this behavior.

Connect to meeting:
Meeting link: https://uio.zoom.us/j/67356471922
Meeting ID: 673 5647 1922

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67356471922@109.105.112.236
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Meeting ID: 673 5647 1922