Collaborative Research: Bacteria surface sensing and biofilm development

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Bacterial biofilms are multicellular communities that display coordinated collective behaviors and emergent pattern formations. They present an important and outstanding challenge in daily life in view of their prevalence in health and industrial problems such as antimicrobial resistance, infection and biofouling of water pipes and ship hulls, which pose severe economic burdens. Many functions of the cell, including adhesion, migration, and multicellular organization, can be altered by changes in the physical properties of the cellular environment. The physical and molecular mechanisms by which cells sense and respond to physical stimuli are poorly understood. The aim of this proposal is to develop a synthetic hydrogel system and use it for assessing the effects of substrate mechanics on biofilm development. The results of this project will provide insight into mechanisms of biofilm growth and how to control its behavior. Furthermore, this project trains a diverse set of undergraduate and graduate students as well as provides research opportunities for high school teacher interns. Teacher-interns participate in on-going research projects in the lab as well as in laboratory and department seminars to facilitate exchange of ideas on education and research. In addition, they are developing a curriculum, based on their projects, that is applied in their own classrooms.The overarching goal of this project is to determine how physical properties of the cellular microenvironment regulate biofilm development within Myxococcus xanthus. A major limitation in this type of study is a lack of appropriate in vitro materials to quantify the effects of systemic changes in substrate mechanics on biofilm development. This project creates new synthetic hydrogel systems, with well-defined tunable chemical and mechanical properties, and uses them to determine the direct response of cells to specific chemical and mechanical stimuli. Models of bacteria-substrate interactions are tested in unprecedented ways. The project integrates experimental and computational approaches, to build and test predictive models of bacterial biofilm development and the functional roles played by the cellular environment.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.