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SUMMARY:Single cell-resolved topological defects of bacterial nematic phas
 es in extreme confinement - Dr. Iago Grobas\, University of Oxford
DTSTART:20221124T123000Z
DTEND:20221124T133000Z
UID:TALK192590@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Raymond E. Goldstein
DESCRIPTION:In nature\, bacteria are not necessarily free in their environ
 ment but rather they navigate through complex topologies such as porous ma
 terials\, rough surfaces or wounds. When doing so\, they may give place to
  living liquid crystals due to the cell-cell alignment. In this study\, we
  use a mutant of Bacillus subtilis that lack flagella as a model organism 
 to study bacteria assembly and liquid crystal formation in extreme confine
 ment. The confinement is micropatterned using an adaptation of a soft lith
 ography-based method. The desired patterns are situated at the bottom of a
  deep well which acts as a reservoir for a solution containing the immotil
 e bacteria. These bacteria precipitate over time\, forming a dense liquid 
 crystalline layer at the bottom of the well. The patterning of bacteria le
 ads to the formation of complex nematic phases whose topological defects d
 epend on the geometry of the confinement and can be resolved at single cel
 l resolution. This characterization allows the comparison with more simple
  systems of hard rod-shaped colloidal particles and of soft fd rod-shaped 
 viruses which\, unlike bacteria\, do not undergo cell replication.  We dis
 covered that the patterns formed by the bacteria resemble those in other n
 ematic phases made by silica rods or fd viruses and predicted by theoretic
 al studies.
LOCATION:MR15\,  Centre for Mathematical Sciences\, Wilberforce Road\, Cam
 bridge
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