Mechanochemistry of Bacterial Cell Wall Growth

该奖项的研究目标是使用光学显微镜、计算和微操作工具的组合来研究细菌细胞壁生长的机制。这项研究将大大有助于在细菌细胞水平上了解物理和化学之间的相互作用，并通过揭示细菌形状和力学的原理来增强我们操纵细胞结构和功能的能力。这项研究是在物理、化学、生物学和工程学的交界处进行的，因此跨越了各种各样和广泛的科学学科。这项工作将为生物机械化学提供新的途径，并可能导致纳米工程的新范式。该教学计划将培养学生对固体力学和化学动力学在微生物生物学中的作用的定量理解。此外，这项工作将有助于促进获奖者机构与一个非博士重点的物理项目之间的伙伴关系，为代表不足的少数族裔提供暑期研究经验，并作为进入研究生的桥梁。该研究项目将开发和测试一个多尺度的细菌生长和形状保持模型。这一过程背后的机制仍然是个谜，尽管许多分子参与者现在已经知道。细菌的形状被认为对细菌的功能很重要。因此，这个项目将探索一种有趣材料的生物物理，同时也将提供有关细菌用来创造和保持其形状的机制的信息。此外，这项研究将开发一种多尺度的方法来确定分子水平的相互作用如何产生主体材料的性质。根据该奖项进行的研究将使用原子力显微镜和光学捕获技术对正在生长的细菌施加规定的力。然后将对形状和生长速度的影响与将开发的多尺度计算模型进行比较，以确定机械力如何影响细胞壁合成的生物化学。

The research objective of this award is to use a combination of optical microscopy, computational and micromanipulation tools to investigate the mechanics of bacterial cell wall growth. This investigation will add significantly to the understanding of the interplay between physics and chemistry at the bacterial cell level and enhance our ability to manipulate cell structure and function by revealing principles of bacterial shape and mechanics. This research is at the interface of physics, chemistry, biology, and engineering, thereby spanning a diverse and broad range of scientific disciplines. The work will provide new avenues into biomechano-chemistry and may also lead to new paradigms in nano-engineering. The educational plan will train students to develop quantitative understandings of the role of solid mechanics and chemical kinetics in microbial biology. In addition, this work will help foster the partnership between the awardee's institution and a non-PhD-focused physics program to provide underrepresented minorities with summer research experience and act as a bridge to graduate school.This research project will develop and test a multiscale model for bacterial growth and shape maintenance. The mechanisms underlying this process remain enigmatic, even though many of the molecular players are now known. Bacterial shape is considered to be important for the function of the bacteria. Therefore, this project will explore the biophysics of an interesting material while also being informative on the mechanisms that bacteria use to create and maintain their shapes. Furthermore, this research will develop a multi-scale approach for determining how molecular-level interactions produce bulk material properties. Studies conducted under this award will use atomic force microscopy and optical trapping techniques to apply prescribed forces to growing bacteria. The consequences on the shape and growth rate will then be compared to the multi-scale computational model that will be developed to determine how mechanical forces affect the biochemistry of cell wall synthesis.