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SUMMARY:Bacterial migration in porous media and the new biological statist
 ical physics that describes it - Otti Croze
DTSTART:20140612T110000Z
DTEND:20140612T120000Z
UID:TALK52919@talks.cam.ac.uk
CONTACT:Salvatore Tesoro
DESCRIPTION:Many bacteria swim chemotactically: they navigate up chemical 
 gradients. The biophysics of chemotaxis in liquids is well understood. Its
  study in porous media\, however\, has recently revealed unexpected surpri
 ses. Existing models describe chemotactic migration in porous media as if 
 bacteria were gas particles in an external field. But this description\, w
 hich maps onto ordinary statistical physics (with detailed balance)\, fail
 s to describe the migration of E. coli bacteria in porous gels. A new tran
 sport theory\, with chemotactic memory (and without detailed balance)\, is
  required to account for the observed suppression of chemotaxis in dense g
 els.\n\nThis finding has practical implications for attempts to use chemot
 actic bacteria to clean up soil (bioremediation). It is part of growing ev
 idence that a new biological statistical physics needs to be developed to 
 accurately describe populations of swimming\, environment-sensing microorg
 anisms.\n\nMy talk will be in two parts. In the first (slides) I will moti
 vate the topic\, describe my experimental work on bacterial migration in a
 gar gels and outline the theory. In the second (at the board) I will sketc
 h the stat mech derivation of transport paramaters in porous media account
 ing for chemotactic memory.
LOCATION:TCM Seminar room\, 530 Mott building
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