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SUMMARY:Soft matter physics and bacteria - Professor Gerard Wong\, UCLA an
 d the University of Illinois
DTSTART:20110511T131500Z
DTEND:20110511T141500Z
UID:TALK31120@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Susan Harding
DESCRIPTION:One of the unsolved problems in human health and disease is th
 e control of pathogens\, such as antibiotic-resistant forms of bacteria. I
 n this talk\, we will briefly describe two vignettes where soft matter phy
 sics-based approaches have been useful. \n\n1)	Bacterial biofilms are stru
 ctured multi-cellular communities that are notoriously resistant to antibi
 otics. By adapting algorithms from colloid physics\, we translate bacteria
  movies into searchable databases of bacterial behavior and find an unexpe
 cted diversity in motility driven by Type IV pili across different bacteri
 al species\, including ‘slingshot’ motions that optimize transport in 
 viscous media\, and ‘stick slip’ motion with power law behavior remini
 scent of self organized criticality. \n\n2)	We examine the mechanism of ma
 mmalian defensins\, a prototypical family of host defense peptides\, and s
 how how we can use topology\, coordination chemistry\, and soft matter phy
 sics to construct a set of design rules for antimicrobials that punch hole
 s in bacterial membranes.\n\n
LOCATION:Unilever Lecture Theatre\, Department of Chemistry
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