Microbe–Flow Interactions using Lab-on-a-chip

Microorganisms rarely live in still environments. In soils, groundwater, plant roots, filters, medical devices, and host tissues, microbes grow, attach, move, and interact under continuous or intermittent fluid flow. Flow transports nutrients, oxygen, chemical signals, antimicrobial compounds, and microbial cells, while microbial growth can reshape local flow paths and solute transport. This project investigates this two-way feedback between microbial behavior and fluid flow.

Research topics include fungal decision-making in flowing microenvironments, biofilm formation in complex microgeometries, and bacteria–fungi interactions under flow. Using transparent microfluidic “lab-on-a-chip” systems, microscopy, and quantitative image analysis, we aim to directly visualize how microbes respond to flow, physical confinement, chemical gradients, and neighboring organisms.

The student will support a graduate student or postdoctoral researcher with experiments and/or data analysis. Possible activities include preparing microbial cultures, assisting with microfluidic experiments, acquiring or organizing microscopy data, and analyzing images using tools such as MATLAB, Python, or ImageJ/Fiji. Students may quantify microbial growth, spatial distribution, biofilm formation, fungal branching, cell transport, or changes in flow and permeability caused by microbial growth.