SGER: From Tracking Rising Air Bubbles to Swimming Escherichia- Coli Cells

建议编号：CTS-0514443研究人员：M.WUINSTITUTION：康奈尔大学SGER：从跟踪上升的空气气泡到游泳的大肠杆菌细胞。拟议的研究工作的目标是研究生物流体系统中气泡的运动。PI建议在气泡表面涂上一种新开发的荧光表面活性剂，同时监测气泡表面的表面活性剂浓度和气泡的运动。这项研究将揭示气泡表面污染物、气泡形状振荡和气泡运动之间的相互作用。另一个目标是将3D成像技术的能力从跟踪直径几毫米的上升气泡扩展到直径几微米的荧光颗粒。拟议项目的智力价值在于它能够在三维空间研究游泳的大肠杆菌细胞的复杂空间和时间动力学。这种能力为研究游泳中的大肠杆菌细胞的运输特性、趋化行为和社会行为开辟了新的机会。就更广泛的影响而言，拟议项目中开发的成像技术可以很容易地在未来用于研究其他更复杂的问题，如细菌细胞的群体行为(例如趋化性或群体感应)。研究生和本科生将在生物学、流体力学和物理学的跨学科研究的前沿接受培训。考虑到性别和族裔多样性将是重要的，其目标是将妇女和代表性不足的群体纳入该项目。关于K-12的推广，这个项目很容易帮助准备一个课堂项目，使细胞和气泡可视化，这些细胞和气泡将通过康奈尔大学国家科学基金会资助的纳米生物技术中心的主街科学计划输出到农村教室。

PROPOSAL NO.: CTS-0514443PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: M. WUINSTITUTION: CORNELL UNIVERSITY SGER: From Tracking Rising Air Bubbles to Swimming E-coli Cells.The goal of the proposed research effort is study the motion of bubbles in biological fluid systems. The PI proposes to coat air bubbles with a newly developed fluorescent surfactant, and monitor the surfactant concentration at bubble surface and the bubble motion simultaneously. This study will reveal the inter play among contaminants at the bubble surface, bubble shape oscillations and bubble motion. Another goal is to extend the capability of the 3-D imaging technique from tracking rising air bubbles of a few millimeters in diameter to fluorescent particles of a few microns in diameter. The intellectual merit of the proposed project resides in its capacity to study the complex spatial and temporal dynamics of swimming E. coli cells in three dimensions. Such capability opens up new opportunities for studying transport properties, chemotactic behavior as well as social behavior of swimming E. coli cells.In terms of broader impacts, the imaging technique developed in the proposed project can be readily adapted in the future to study other more complex problems, such as community behavior (e.g. chemotaxis or quorum sensing) in bacterial cells. Graduate and undergraduate students will be trained at the forefront of the interdisciplinary research in biology, fluid mechanics and physics. Considerations of gender and ethnic diversity will be important with a goal of incorporating women and under represented groups in the project. With respect to K-12 outreach, this project lends itself easily to the preparation of a classroom project to visualize cells and air bubbles that will be exported to rural classrooms through the Main Street Science program at Cornell's NSF-funded Nanobiotechnology Center.