Fusco Lab
Department of Physics
University of Cambridge
Bypassing obstacles: a collective solution for a shared problem
As they expand in space, cellular populations periodically encounter different environments, including physical obstacles, which can be impenetrable walls, movable objects or other cellular populations.
​
We find that B. subtilis biofilms use a wide range of strategies, achieved by coordinating the spatial and temporal phenotypic pattern of the population, to bypass different obstacles on their path. We are currently exploring how the cellular population senses these obstacles and coordinates its collective response.
​
People: Racha Majed, Nikhil Krishnan
In collaboration with Luis Ruiz Pestana (U. Miami)
Microscopic models for biofilms' mechanical properties
While many different types of biofilms have successfully been modeled as viscoelastic materials, we know very little of how their macroscopic mechanical properties emerge from the microscopic cell-cell and cell-substrate interactions.
​
We are currently exploring how different interaction potentials provide good and poor descriptions for the observed mechanical properties of B. subtilis biofilms to build a general platform that can be applied to different species and multi-species biofilms.
​
People: Nikhil Krishnan
In collaboration with Luis Ruiz Pestana (U. Miami)
The age structure of microbial colonies and its role in resistance
During the expansion of a microbial colony or biofilm, nutrient gradients emerge that promote the growth of the cells at the edge of the expansion compared to those in the bulk. As a result, cells at the edge of the colony, which are more likely to experience external antibiotic, have also undergone more generations and thus are more likely to have acquired mutations that confer resistance.
​
By combining our models of microbial range expansions with high-resolution microscopy and synthetic gene circuits from the Bakshi lab, we are investigating whether the expansion process leads to a genetic and phenotypic achitecture in E. coli biofilms that makes them naturally resilient to antibiotic attacks.
​
In collaboration with Somenath Bakshi (Engineering, U. Cambridge)
