A novel mechanism of microbial attachment: The flagellar pump of .

The ability of microbes to attach to biological and inert substrates is a necessary prerequisite for colonization of new habitats. In contrast to well-characterized mechanisms that rely on specific or nonspecific chemical interactions between microbe and substrate, we describe here an effective hydrodynamic mechanism of attachment that relies on fluid flow generated by the microbe. The microbe , a flagellated protozoan parasite, naturally attaches to the microvilliated surface of the small intestine but is also capable of attaching indiscriminately to a wide range of natural and artificial substrates.

Stress and flow inhomogeneity in shear-thickening suspensions.

Hypothesis: The viscosity of dense suspensions surges when the applied stress surpasses a material-specific critical threshold. There is growing evidence that the thickening transition involves non-uniform flow and stress with considerable spatiotemporal complexity. Nevertheless, it is anticipated that dense suspensions of calcium carbonate particles with purely repulsive interactions may not conform to this scenario, as indicated by local pressure measurements with millimeter spatial resolution.

Effect of curvature on the diffusion of colloidal bananas.

Anisotropic colloidal particles exhibit complex dynamics which play a crucial role in their functionality, transport, and phase behavior. In this Letter, we investigate the two-dimensional diffusion of smoothly curved colloidal rods-also known as colloidal bananas-as a function of their opening angle α. We measure the translational and rotational diffusion coefficients of the particles with opening angles ranging from 0^{∘} (straight rods) to nearly 360^{∘}(closed rings).

Bonded straight and helical flagellar filaments form ultra-low-density glasses.

We study how the three-dimensional shape of rigid filaments determines the microscopic dynamics and macroscopic rheology of entangled semidilute Brownian suspensions. To control the filament shape we use bacterial flagella, which are microns-long helical or straight filaments assembled from flagellin monomers. We compare the dynamics of straight rods, helical filaments, and shape-diblock copolymers composed of seamlessly joined straight and helical segments.

Structure of propagating high-stress fronts in a shear-thickening suspension.

We report direct measurements of spatially resolved stress at the boundary of a shear-thickening cornstarch suspension revealing persistent regions of high local stress propagating in the flow direction at the speed of the top boundary. The persistence of these propagating fronts enables precise measurements of their structure, including the profile of boundary stress measured by boundary stress microscopy (BSM) and the nonaffine velocity of particles at the bottom boundary of the suspension measured by particle image velocimetry (PIV). In addition, we directly measure the relative flow between the particle phase and the suspending fluid (fluid migration) and find the migration is highly localized to the fronts and changes direction across the front, indicating that the fronts are composed of a localized region of high dilatant pressure and low particle concentration.

Synthesis of Rough Colloidal SU-8 Rods and Bananas via Nanoprecipitation.

Surface roughness plays an important role in determining the mechanical properties, wettability, and self-assembly in colloidal systems. In this work, we develop a simple and fast method to produce rough colloidal SU-8 rods, bananas, and spheres, via the nanoprecipitation of SU-8 in water. During this process, SU-8 nanospheres are absorbed onto the surface of the colloidal SU-8 particles and then cross-linked using UV-light.

Dynamics and memory of boundary stresses in discontinuous shear thickening suspensions during oscillatory shear.

We report direct measurements of spatially resolved surface stresses of a dense suspension during large amplitude oscillatory shear (LAOS) in the discontinuous shear thickening regime using boundary stress microscopy. Consistent with previous studies, bulk rheology shows a dramatic increase in the complex viscosity above a frequency-dependent critical strain. We find that the viscosity increase is coincident with that appearance of large heterogeneous boundary stresses, indicative of the formation of transient solid-like phases (SLPs) on spatial scales large compared to the particle size.

Effective aspect ratio of helices in shear flow.

We report the results of simulations of rigid colloidal helices suspended in a shear flow, using dissipative particle dynamics for a coarse-grained representation of the suspending fluid, as well as deterministic trajectories of non-Brownian helices calculated from the resistance tensor derived under the slender-body approximation. The shear flow produces nonuniform rotation of the helices, similarly to other high aspect ratio particles, such that more elongated helices spend more time aligned with the fluid velocity. We introduce a geometric effective aspect ratio calculated directly from the helix geometry and a dynamical effective aspect ratio derived from the trajectories of the particles and find that the two effective aspect ratios are approximately equal over the entire parameter range tested.

Role of particle orientational order during shear thickening in suspensions of colloidal rods.

Rheology of dense anisotropic colloidal suspensions often exhibits unsteady flow at constant imposed shear stress and/or shear rate. Using simultaneous high-resolution confocal microscopy and rheology, we find that the temporal behavior arises due to a strong coupling between shear flow and particle orientation. At smaller applied stresses, the orientation of rods fluctuates around the flow direction.

Localized stress fluctuations drive shear thickening in dense suspensions.

Dense particulate suspensions exhibit a dramatic increase in average viscosity above a critical, material-dependent shear stress. This thickening changes from continuous to discontinuous as the concentration is increased. Using direct measurements of spatially resolved surface stresses in the continuous thickening regime, we report the existence of clearly defined dynamic localized regions of substantially increased stress that appear intermittently at stresses above the critical stress.

Live Cell Imaging and 3D Analysis of Angiotensin Receptor Type 1a Trafficking in Transfected Human Embryonic Kidney Cells Using Confocal Microscopy.

Live-cell imaging is used to simultaneously capture time-lapse images of angiotensin type 1a receptors (AT1aR) and intracellular compartments in transfected human embryonic kidney-293 (HEK) cells following stimulation with angiotensin II (Ang II). HEK cells are transiently transfected with plasmid DNA containing AT1aR tagged with enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP). Lysosomes are identified with a red fluorescent dye.

Torsional stiffness determines aggregate structure in sheared colloidal rod suspensions.

We report the results of simulations of suspensions of sheared rigid rods in the presence of strong attractive inter-particle interactions, using dissipative particle dynamics for a coarse-grained representation of the suspending fluid. We find that the combined effect of the attractive interactions and shear-induced alignment generically produces aggregates of aligned bundles when the contact points between rods are free to rotate. However, the introduction of substantial torsional stiffness to the inter-particle contacts recapitulates the disordered aggregates often observed in suspensions of high aspect ratio particles.

Traction force and tension fluctuations in growing axons.

Actively generated mechanical forces play a central role in axon growth and guidance, but the mechanisms that underly force generation and regulation in growing axons remain poorly understood. We report measurements of the dynamics of traction stresses from growth cones of actively advancing axons from postnatal rat DRG neurons. By tracking the movement of the growth cone and analyzing the traction stress field from a reference frame that moves with it, we are able to show that there is a clear and consistent average stress field that underlies the complex spatial stresses present at any one time.

Stress heterogeneities in sheared type-I collagen networks revealed by Boundary Stress Microscopy.

Disordered fiber networks provide structural support to a wide range of important materials, and the combination of spatial and dynamic complexity may produce large inhomogeneities in mechanical properties, an effect that is largely unexplored experimentally. In this work, we introduce Boundary Stress Microscopy to quantify the non-uniform surface stresses in sheared collagen gels. We find local stresses exceeding average stresses by an order of magnitude, with variations over length scales much larger than the network mesh size.

Shear-driven aggregation of SU-8 microrods in suspension.

A non-Brownian suspension of micron scale rods exhibits reversible shear-driven formation of disordered aggregates resulting in dramatic viscosity enhancement at low shear rates. Aggregate formation is imaged using a combined rheometer and fluorescence microscope. The size and structure of these aggregates are found to be a function of shear rate and concentration, with larger aggregates present at lower shear rates and higher concentrations.

The effects of confinement on neuronal growth cone morphology and velocity.

Optimizing growth cone guidance through the use of patterned substrates is important for designing regenerative substrates to aid in recovery from neuronal injury. Using laser ablation, we designed micron-scale patterns capable of confining dissociated mouse cerebellar granule neuron growth cones to channels of different widths ranging from 1.5 to 12 μm.

Optical and physicochemical characterization of the luminous mucous secreted by the marine worm Chaetopterus sp.

Bioluminescence of the marine worm Chaetopterus variopedatus was first investigated several decades ago mainly using tissue extract. Light production of the worm, however, originates from a secreted mucus only. Here, we report the optical and physicochemical properties of the luminous mucus.

Strength in the periphery: growth cone biomechanics and substrate rigidity response in peripheral and central nervous system neurons.

There is now considerable evidence of the importance of mechanical cues in neuronal development and regeneration. Motivated by the difference in the mechanical properties of the tissue environment between the peripheral (PNS) and central (CNS) nervous systems, we compare substrate-stiffness-dependent outgrowth and traction forces from PNS (dorsal root ganglion (DRG)) and CNS (hippocampal) neurons. We show that neurites from DRG neurons display maximal outgrowth on substrates with a Young's modulus of ∼1000 Pa, whereas hippocampal neurite outgrowth is independent of substrate stiffness.

Size-dependent rheology of type-I collagen networks.

We investigate the system size-dependent rheological response of branched type I collagen gels. When subjected to a shear strain, the highly interconnected mesh dynamically reorients, resulting in overall stiffening of the network. When a continuous shear strain is applied to a collagen network, we observe that the local apparent modulus, in the strain-stiffening regime, is strongly dependent on the gel thickness.

Event ordering in live-cell imaging determined from temporal cross-correlation asymmetry.

We use the temporal asymmetry of the cross-correlation function to determine the temporal ordering of spatially localized cellular events in live-cell multichannel fluorescence imaging. The analysis is well suited to noisy, stochastic systems where the temporal order may not be apparent in the raw data. The approach is applicable to any biochemical reaction not in chemical equilibrium, including protein complex assembly, sequential enzymatic processes, gene regulation, and other cellular signaling events.

Quantitative studies of neuronal chemotaxis in 3D.

During development a variety of cell types are guided by molecular concentration gradients to form tissues and organ systems. In the nervous system, the migration and neuronal pathfinding that occurs during development is organized and driven by "guidance cues." Some of these cues are substrate bound or nondiffusible, while many are diffusible and form gradients within the developing embryo to guide neurons and neurites to their appropriate destination.

Chloroquine transport in Plasmodium falciparum. 1. Influx and efflux kinetics for live trophozoite parasites using a novel fluorescent chloroquine probe.

Several models for how amino acid substitutions in the Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine resistance transporter (PfCRT) confer resistance to chloroquine (CQ) and other antimalarial drugs have been proposed. Distinguishing between these models requires detailed analysis of high-resolution CQ transport data that is unfortunately impossible to obtain with traditional radio-tracer methods. Thus, we have designed and synthesized fluorescent CQ analogues for drug transport studies.

Optical neuronal guidance in three-dimensional matrices.

We demonstrate effective guidance of neurites extending from PC12 cells in a three-dimensional collagen matrix using a focused infrared laser. Processes can be redirected in an arbitrarily chosen direction in the imaging plane in approximately 30 min with an 80% success rate. In addition, the application of the laser beam significantly increases the rate of neurite outgrowth.