北京大学定量生物学中心

学术报告 

题    目: A universal microfluidic approach for quantitative study of bacterial biofilms

报告人: Dr. Jintao Liu (刘锦涛)

School of Medicine, Tsinghua University

时    间: 11月18日（周三）14:00-15:00

地    点: 吕志和楼B101报告厅

主持人: 汤超 教授

摘 要:

Bacteria usually live in densely packed communities called biofilms, where the interactions between the bacteria give rise to complex properties. Quantitative analysis is very useful in understanding these properties. However, current biofilm culturing approaches impose various limitations. We developed a microfluidic approach for quantitative study of biofilms, which is universal and can be used to study biofilms of various bacterial species. To demonstrate the utility of this approach, we will present two examples, both of which revealed new biological insights. In the first example, we will explore the response of Escherichia coli biofilms to exogenous hydrogen peroxide. We found biofilms gained tolerance to H₂O₂, but their growth was slowed down due to the metabolic cost of maintaining the tolerance; However, under oxygen limitation, H₂O₂ can anti-intuitively boost growth. In the second example, we will explore the spatial aspect of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. We observed an auto-fluorescent substance within the biofilm and identified it as the iron chelator pyoverdine; We further showed that the extracellular matrix in the biofilm acted as a diffusion barrier for pyoverdine, minimizing its loss into the environment and therefore potentially promoting the sharing of pyoverdine within the biofilm as a public good.

报告人简介：

 Jintao Liu got bachelor's degree in physics from University of Science and Technology of China in 2004, got PhD in physics from University of Pittsburgh in 2011. He worked as a postdoctoral scholar in the Department of Computational and Systems Biology at University of Pittsburgh between 2011 and 2012, and in the Division of Biological Sciences at University of California San Diego between 2012 and 2017. He joined Tsinghua University in 2017, became an assistant professor at the School of Medicine and member of the Tsinghua-Peking Center for Life Sciences.