Mark Alber : Multi-scale Modeling of Bacterial Swarming

The ability of animals to self-organize into remarkable patterns of movement is seen throughout nature from herds of large mammals, to flocks of birds, schools of fish, and swarms of insects. Remarkably, patterns of collective movement can be seen even in the simplest forms of life such as bacteria. M. xanthus are common soil bacteria that are among the most “social" bacteria in nature. In this talk clustering mechanism of swarming M. xanthus will be described using combination of experimental movies and stochastic model simulations. Continuous limits of discrete stochastic dynamical systems simulating cell aggregation will be described in the form of reaction-diffusion and nonlinear diffusion equations. Surface motility such as swarming is thought to precede biofilm formation during infection. Population of bacteria P. aeruginosa, major infection in hospitals, will be shown to efficiently propagate as high density waves that move symmetrically as rings within swarms towards the extending tendrils. Multi-scale model simulations suggest a mechanism of wave propagation as well as branched tendril formation at the edge of the population that depend upon competition between the changing viscosity of the bacterial liquid suspension and the liquid film boundary expansion caused by Marangoni forces. This collective mechanism of cell- cell coordination was recently shown to moderate swarming direction of individual bacteria to avoid a toxic environment. In the last part of the talk a three-dimensional multiscale modeling approach will be described for studying fluid–viscoelastic cell interaction during blood clot formation.

• Category: Mathematical Biology
• Duration: 01:14:49
• Date:  November 14, 2014 at 11:55 AM
• Views: 117
• Tags:   seminar, Mathematical Biology Seminar