Study of E. coli activity gets boost

Professors at the University of Illinois in Champaign say they have discovered a way to better study the bacterial swimming of E. coli.

University of Illinois physics professor Yann Chemla said in a release from the university Sunday by using optical traps, microfluidic chambers and fluorescence, he and physics professor Ido Golding were able to better track the behavior of bacteria cells.

Using lasers in the optical traps, the researchers were able to keep individual bacteria cells confined without impacting the cells’ rotation. When the cells did move, the laser was able to track the cells’ behavior.

Chemla said after confining the cells, he and Golding were able to introduce specific stimuli and investigate how the bacteria responds.

We can set up a flow cell that has two different concentrations of some chemical, for example, and see how the bacterium responds. Technically we’re moving the swimming pool relative to the swimmer, he said.

That’s the typical way biology moves forward, Golding said of the discovery. You develop a new measurement capability and then you can use that to go back and look at fundamental questions that people had been looking at but had no way of answering.