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

建议没有。项目编号：ccs -0514443主要研究人员：M. wu机构：康奈尔大学SGER：从跟踪上升的气泡到游动的大肠杆菌细胞。提出的研究工作的目标是研究气泡在生物流体系统中的运动。该项目提出在气泡表面涂上荧光表面活性剂，同时监测气泡表面表面活性剂浓度和气泡运动。本研究将揭示气泡表面污染物之间的相互作用，气泡形状振荡和气泡运动。另一个目标是扩展3d成像技术的能力，从跟踪直径几毫米的上升气泡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中研究游动的大肠杆菌细胞的复杂空间和时间动力学。这种能力为研究游动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，在拟议项目中开发的成像技术可以很容易地在未来适应于研究其他更复杂的问题，例如细菌细胞中的群落行为（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。考虑到性别和种族多样性将是重要的，目的是将妇女和代表性不足的群体纳入项目。关于K-12的推广，这个项目可以很容易地准备一个教室项目，将细胞和气泡可视化，并通过康奈尔国家科学基金会资助的纳米生物技术中心的主街科学项目出口到农村的教室。

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.