BRIGE: Molecular Mechanisms of Bacterial Adhesion through Surface Biopolymers

EEC-0823901 Abu-lailBRIGE奖项通过增加ENG研究人员的多样性来保持全球竞争力，这些研究人员在职业生涯的早期就开始了研究项目。 BRIGE通过增加工程专业毕业生的数量，提高女性和少数民族在工程专业的代表性，以及了解如何提高工程专业学生的招聘和保留率，进一步扩大了工程研究人员的参与。病原菌最初附着在表面被认为是生物膜形成和随后感染的关键初步步骤。 多年来，对依恋机制的研究主要集中在宏观层面上探索粗糙度和运动性等因素对依恋的影响。 虽然这种宏观尺度的研究可能非常有趣，但细菌与表面相互作用的分子尺度研究可以详细说明附着的分子机制。 尽管这种分子尺度的测量很重要，但细菌表面生物聚合物的分子特性与病原微生物对表面的粘附之间并不存在明确的关系。 由于缺乏这样的研究，本研究的目的是提供一个初步的了解细菌表面的生物聚合物的分子效应上的单核细胞增生李斯特菌的初始连接到一个模型表面。 本申请的中心假设是L.单核细胞增多症是强烈影响细菌表面电荷、润湿性和弹性并因此影响该微生物对表面的初始附着的基本分子组分。 本课题主要研究L.使用原子力显微镜（AFM）观察单核细胞增生对其初始附着于表面的影响。 AFM在粘附测量技术中是独一无二的，因为它能够在液体介质中以分子水平量化细菌和表面之间的相互作用力，该液体介质模拟相互作用发生的情况。 该应用程序的结果将有助于研究人员设计新的有效的预防和治疗策略，以细菌感染。PI将与教育活动相结合，将数学和生物工程与来自不同背景的研究生和本科生的培训相结合。 教育计划将：1）为一个由一名研究生、两名高年级女工程学生和两名大一残疾本科生组成的学生团队提供指导性的教学和研究经验; 2）开发一个可以纳入高年级生物工程课程的教学模块，以提高学生对数学建模和曲线拟合的有效学习;和3）与现有的NSF GK-12赠款合作，将动手实验纳入初中和高中学生的数学课程。 教育活动旨在提高参与学生的学习和奖学金，特别是那些在工程方面代表性不足的学生，并培养他们的自我成长，成为更加独立和终身学习者和研究人员。参加这些教育活动的学生有望获得对科学研究的兴奋感的欣赏，学习阅读和解释科学文献，设计，执行和分析实验，以口头和书面形式交流他们的发现，并在团队中良好地工作。最后，希望通过拓展性的动手实验来加强初中和高中学生的数学成绩，激发他们对工程的兴趣。研究结果将通过研讨会、技术期刊论文和专业会议报告向科学界传播，并通过新闻稿向公众传播。BRIGE赠款将扩大所有工程师的参与并增加他们的机会，包括那些来自工程学科代表性不足的群体的工程师。 该BRIGE赠款还将鼓励PI作为独立调查员积极参与研究。

EEC-0823901Abu-lailBRIGE awards maintain global competitiveness by increasing the diversity of ENG researchers, who are initiating research programs early in their careers. BRIGE awards further the broaden participation of engineering researchers by increasing the number of engineering graduates, by improving the representation of women and minorities in engineering, and by understanding how to improve recruitment and retention of engineering students.Initial attachment of pathogenic bacteria to a surface is considered a key preliminary step in biofilm formation and subsequent infections. For many years, research to understand the attachment mechanisms focused on macroscale exploration of the effect of factors such as roughness and motility on the attachment. While such macroscale investigations can be very interesting, molecular-scale studies of bacterial interactions with surfaces can detail the molecular mechanisms of attachment. Despite the importance of such molecular-scale measurements, a clear relationship between the molecular properties of bacterial surface biopolymers and the adhesion of pathogenic microbes to surfaces does not exist. Motivated by the lack of such studies, this research aims to provide a preliminary understanding of the molecular effects of bacterial surface biopolymers on the initial attachment of Listeria monocytogenes to a model surface. The central hypothesis of this application is that surface biopolymers of L. monocytogenes are essential molecular components that strongly affect the bacterial surface charge, wettability, and elasticity and thus initial attachment of this microbe to surfaces. The PI will research the molecular effects of the surface biopolymers of L. monocytogenes on their initial attachment to surfaces using atomic force microscopy (AFM). AFM is unique among adhesion measurement techniques in its ability to quantify the interaction forces between bacteria and surfaces at a molecular level in liquid media that mimics that in which interactions occur. The results of this application will be instrumental to researchers designing new effective preventive and treatment strategies to bacterial infections.The PI will intertwine the research with educational activities integrating mathematics and bioengineering with the training of graduate and undergraduate students from diverse backgrounds. The education plan will: 1) provide mentored teaching and research experiences to a team of students consisting of a graduate student, two upper-level women engineering students, and two freshman disabled undergraduate students; 2) develop a teaching module that can be incorporated into upper-level bioengineering courses to enhance effective student learning of mathematical modeling and curve fitting; and 3) collaborate with an existing NSF GK-12 grant to incorporate hands-on experiments in the mathematics curricula of middle and high school students. The educational activities are geared to enhance the learning and scholarship of the participating students, especially those underrepresented in engineering, and to nurture their self-growth to be more independent and lifelong learners and researchers. The participating students in these educational activities are expected to gain an appreciation for the excitement of scientific research, learn to read and interpret scientific literature, design, perform, and analyze experiments, communicate their findings in both oral and written format, and work well within a team. Finally, the outreach hands-on experiments are expected to strengthen the middle and high school students' performance in mathematics and stimulate their interests in engineering. The results of the research will be disseminated to the scientific community through seminars, technical journal papers, and professional conference presentations and to the general public through news releases.This BRIGE grant will broaden the participation of and increase opportunities for all engineers including those from groups underrepresented in the engineering disciplines. This BRIGE grant will also encourage the PI to become actively and competitively engaged in research as an independent investigator.