On Oct 11st, our group got the honor to invite Prof. Jintao Liu from Department of Basic Medical Sciences, Tsinghua University to our center, presenting his latest research with the title “The dynamic behavior of biofilms”. The presentation mainly introduced from two aspects: “the metabolic co-dependence gives rise to collective oscillation within biofilms” and “Coupling between distant biofilms and emergence of nutrient time-sharing”, which published in Nature and Science journal respectively. With the utilization of Micro-fluidics and Inversed Fluorescent Microscope techniques, Prof. Liu vividly showed us the collective oscillation within a single layer of biofilm (Bacillus subtilis), which could benefit the community in the event of a chemical attack. In addition, it was also found that two Bacillus subtilis biofilm communities undergoing metabolic oscillations become coupled through electrical signaling and synchronize their growth dynamics. The presentation lasted for around 40 mins, while the Q&A took almost one hour, revealing the keen interests among the audiences. We are looking forward to hearing from Prof. Liu in the near future.
Prof. Liu got his Bachelor and Ph.D. degree from USTC and University of Pittsburgh, respectively. After which he did his Post-doc in University of California, San Diego and finally went back to Tsinghua University in 2017. Dr. Liu and his team focus on developing innovative technologies to culture and probe biofilms, studying their spatiotemporal dynamics, and developing more effective strategies to treat bacterial infections. A series of their works have been published in world-renowned Journals like Nature, Science, Cell and PNAS etc.
(Reported by Dr Lei Xu)
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