Abstract:
One of the unsolved problems in human health and disease is the control of pathogens, such as antibiotic-resistant forms of bacteria. In this talk, we will briefly describe three vignettes where physics-based approaches have been useful.
1) Bacterial biofilms are structured multi-cellular communities that are notoriously resistant to antibiotics. By adapting algorithms from colloid physics, we translate bacteria movies into searchable databases of bacterial behavior and find new appendage-specific mechanisms for P. aeruginosa surface motility.
2) We examine the mechanism of mammalian defensins, a prototypical family of host defense peptides, and show how we can use topology, coordination chemistry, and soft matter physics to construct a set of design rules for antimicrobials that punch holes in bacterial membranes.
3) By using 3 rd generation synchrotrons to measure the density propagator of water, we show that it is possible to make movies of hydration structure and dynamics at femtosecond timescales and sub-Angstrom lengthscales. We use this Greens function method to explore water dynamics in confined geometries.
Coffee and tea will be served 20 minutes prior to the seminar.