SPIM-Flow: An Integrated Light Sheet and Microfluidics Platform for Hydrodynamic Studies of .

Selective plane illumination microscopy (SPIM), or light sheet microscopy, is a powerful imaging approach. However, access to and interfacing microscopes with microfluidics have remained challenging. Complex interfacing with microfluidics has limited the SPIM's utility for studying the hydrodynamics of freely moving multicellular organisms.

Developing Antimicrobial Synergy With AMPs.

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) have been extensively studied due to their vast natural abundance and ability to kill microbes. In an era critically lacking in new antibiotics, manipulating AMPs for therapeutic application is a promising option. However, bacterial pathogens resistant to AMPs remain problematic.

A novel antibacterial strategy: histone and antimicrobial peptide synergy.

The rate at which antibiotics are discovered and developed has stagnated; meanwhile, antibacterial resistance continually increases and leads to a plethora of untreatable and deadly infections worldwide. Therefore, there is a critical need to develop new antimicrobial strategies to combat this alarming reality. One approach is to understand natural antimicrobial defense mechanisms that higher-level organisms employ in order to kill bacteria, potentially leading to novel antibiotic therapeutic approaches.

Mammalian histones facilitate antimicrobial synergy by disrupting the bacterial proton gradient and chromosome organization.

First proposed as antimicrobial agents, histones were later recognized for their role in condensing chromosomes. Histone antimicrobial activity has been reported in innate immune responses. However, how histones kill bacteria has remained elusive.