Bacteria in microengineered environments

by Peter Galajda (Institute of Biophysics, Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences)

Wednesday 11 Jun 2014, 15:00 → 16:00 Europe/Rome

Aula Corbino (Dip. di Fisica - Edificio E. Fermi)

There is an intimate relation between a cell and it’s environment: environmental factors affect the functioning of cells while the organisms themselves can modify the chemical and physical properties of the extracellular space. In order to explore these processes we need the ability to manipulate cellular environments and habitats on the microscopic scale. In our research we use microfabrication technologies to create synthetic engineered microhabitats for bacteria. With the help of microfluidics we study a range of biophysical and biological p! roblems including the hydrodynamics of swimming, the synchronized motion and swarming of cell populations, bacterial chemotaxis in chemical concentration gradients and the complex interactions of physically separated but chemically coupled cell communities. Throughout these examples I will attempt to demonstrate the complex multicellular behavior of bacterial populations, and the usefulness of microfabrication technologies in modern microbiology.