Publications by authors named "Sarah Boulineau"
Elucidating the role of molecular stochasticity in cellular growth is central to understanding phenotypic heterogeneity and the stability of cellular proliferation. The inherent stochasticity of metabolic reaction events should have negligible effect, because of averaging over the many reaction events contributing to growth. Indeed, metabolism and growth are often considered to be constant for fixed conditions.
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- The study demonstrates the use of patterned polyacrylamide layers to create microfluidic devices that can enclose living cells and organisms for microscopy purposes.
- The polyacrylamide gels are capable of being molded into tiny structures that are liquid-permeable and transparent, enabling clear observation of the enclosed organisms.
- The devices allow for precise control over growth conditions, including nutrients and drug exposure, facilitating studies on bacterial, yeast, and C. elegans development through time-lapse microscopy.
Stochasticity in gene regulation has been characterized extensively, but how it affects cellular growth and fitness is less clear. We study the growth of E. coli cells as they shift from glucose to lactose metabolism, which is characterized by an obligatory growth arrest in bulk experiments that is termed the lag phase.
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