Biophysical Society Thematic Meeting | Ascona 2026

Mechanobiology of Infection

Tuesday Speaker Abstracts

BACTERIAL STRESS RESPONSES AND SURFACE ADHESION IN SHEAR FLOW Joseph Sanfilippo University of Illinois, Biochemistry, Urbana, IL, USA My research group combines traditional molecular biology approaches with microfluidic technology to examine how host-relevant shear flow impacts stress responses and surface adhesion of the human pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa. While reductionist experimental systems provide great mechanistic insight, they commonly lack key aspects of natural systems, such as fluid flow. Thus, there is a great opportunity to solve outstanding problems in microbiology by implementing experimental systems that more precisely model natural conditions. Two major recent discoveries from my lab highlight the scientific opportunities of studying bacteria in flow. First, we discovered that flow sensitizes P. aeruginosa to host-relevant doses of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ). Second, we discovered that host-relevant shear forces enhance P. aeruginosa adhesion by counteracting pilus-driven surface departure. Together, these discoveries highlight how using microfluidics can capture bacterial behavior that classical approaches overlook, often revealing unexpected and counterintuitive outcomes.

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