Researchers find that going with the flow makes bacteria stick
In a surprising new finding, researchers have discovered that bacterial movement is impeded in flowing water, enhancing the likelihood that the microbes will attach to surfaces. The new work could have implications for the study of marine ecosystems, and for our understanding of how infections take hold in medical devices.The findings, the result of microscopic analysis of bacteria inside microfluidic devices, were made by MIT postdoc Roberto Rusconi, former MIT postdoc Jeffrey Guasto (now an assistant professor of mechanical engineering at Tufts University), and Roman Stocker, an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at MIT. Their results are published in the journal Nature Physics.The study, which combined experimental observations with mathematical modeling, showed that the flow of liquid can have two significant effects on microbes: “It quenches the ability of microbes to chase food,” Stocker says, “and it helps microbes find surfaces.”That second finding could be particularly beneficial: Stocker...