17 research outputs found
NanoRefinery of carbonaceous nanomaterials: Complementing dairy manure gasification and their applications in cellular imaging and heavy metal sensing
Janice Ritenburg Rossbach (interviewed by Emma Bernstein)
Interview conducted with an MIT alumna as part of the Margaret MacVicar Memorial AMITA (Association of MIT Alumnae) Oral History Project. The purpose of the project is to document the life histories of women graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Imaging Pseudomonas aeruginosa Biofilm Extracellular Polymer Scaffolds with Amphiphilic Carbon Dots
Imaging <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i> Biofilm Extracellular Polymer Scaffolds with Amphiphilic Carbon Dots
Biofilm
formation is a critical facet of pathogenesis and resilience
of human, animal, and plant bacteria. Extracellular polymeric substances
(EPS) constitute the physical scaffolding for bacterial biofilms and
thus play central roles in their development and virulence. We show
that newly synthesized amphiphilic fluorescent carbon dots (C-dots)
readily bind to the EPS scaffold of <i>Pseudomonas aeruginosa</i>, a major biofilm-forming pathogen, resulting in unprecedented microscopic
visualization of the EPS structural features. Fluorescence microscopy
analysis utilizing the C-dots reveals that the <i>P. aeruginosa</i> EPS matrix exhibits a remarkable dendritic morphology. The experiments
further illuminate the growth kinetics of the EPS and the effect of
external factors such as temperature. We also show that the amphiphilic
C-dot platform enabled screening of substances disrupting biofilm
development, specifically quorum sensing inhibitors