Photoswitch for bacterial electrophysiology!

Really excited to share this new paper! Great collaboration with Italian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Politecnico di Milano! Congratulations to Tailise, Gaia, Iago and the whole team!

We used a photoswitch to trigger a response in bacterial membrane potential using light.

Please check our publication: https://doi.org/10.1002/advs.202205007

Munehiro Asally : 06 Feb 2023 17:41 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Fully Funded PhD studentship!

Applicaiton is open for BBSRC ICASE studentship on "Bacterial electrophysiology for diagnosis and modulation of cell vitality"!

The deadline: 20 January 2023

Recent advances in systems biology, synthetic biology, and physical biology have begun to highlight the significant importance of non-genetic factors in regulation and signalling of cells. It is increasingly recognised that cell physiology works in conjunction with gene-regulation in most biological processes. For many biological processes, analysis of genes is not sufficient to gain full understanding and rationale engineering of biological systems. Consideration of physiological dynamics is crucial for biotechnology and fundamental understanding of cells. However, our understanding of cell physiology is still falling behind molecular investigations, in part due to difficulties of determining the physiological states of cells.

In this collaboration between Cytecom Ltd and Dr Munehiro Asally, University of Warwick, we seek to broaden our understanding of cell physiology by establishing methods for characterising the physiological states of cells and controlling cell growth using electrical stimulation.

Two main goals of this project are:

1. To characterise electrically induced membrane potential dynamics
2. To modulate growth rates and antibiotic tolerance by electrical stimulation

The project will combine molecular biology, fluorescence time-lapse microscopy, biophysical assays, and computational modelling. Using the model organism E. coliand B. subtilis, the project will establish a novel method for determining and modulating cell physiological states of bacterial cells using Cytecom’s technology. These advancements will offer novel ways for diagnosis of microbial infections, enable classification of bacterial samples, and facilitate developments of antimicrobial compounds. Moreover, the ability to modulate the growth rates could offer a new engineering biology technique that can be combined with synthetic biology tools to control cellular activities in space and time to produce spatially-temporally organised bacterial communities.

https://www.findaphd.com/phds/project/bacterial-electrophysiology-for-diagnosis-and-modulation-of-cell-vitality/?p153052

Munehiro Asally : 06 Jan 2023 10:47 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Congratulations to Iago!

Dr Iagro Grobas, PhD graduate from the lab, has been awarededMargarita Salas Fellowship!

Iago is joining Buceta Lab in Valencia, Spain for his fellowship project.

Looking forward to learning the new findings that you will make with the fellowship, Iago.

Iago also has recently published a new paper relating to his PhD project:

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frsfm.2022.936779/full

Huge congratulations, Iago!

Munehiro Asally : 01 Dec 2022 11:13 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Best Technology Innovation Award!

Cytecom, spinout company from the lab, has won the Best Technology Innovation Award at Lab Innovations, UK's one of the largest exhibitions for lab industry!

Congratulations to Cytecom team!

https://www.lab-innovations.com/

And, here is the paper which is the foundation of the technology:

https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.1901788116

Munehiro Asally : 08 Nov 2022 09:22 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New preprint! Optical stimulation of B subtilis membrane potential

New preprint from the lab!

Membrane Targeted Azobenzene Drives Optical Modulation of Bacterial Membrane Potential

https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.09.05.506195

Great collaboration with Bertarelli lab, Lanzani lab and Paterno lab at Italian Institute of Technology and Politecnico di Milano. We beleive that there could be many applications of this technology for bacterial electrophysiology.

Munehiro Asally : 09 Sep 2022 12:41 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

inVisible conference on the 8th of July 2022

Munehiro will be giving a talk at a University event to highlight the research by ethnic minorities.

Thanks Maria Kariuki for organising this event and for the invitation. Looking forward to learning diverse scientific topics.

08th July: Faculty of Science, Engineering and Medicine Research Talks/Posters.

https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/cross_fac/ias/calendar/invisible_conference/

Munehiro Asally : 17 Jun 2022 15:09 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Faculty Thesis Prize!!

Iago Grobas won the WMS Faculty Thesis Award for his thesis “Biophysical mechanisms of antimicrobial resistance in swarming B. subtilis“. A part of this thesis has been publishe in eLife.

The project was co-supervised with Dr Marco Polin. We had great time explore biophysics of bacterial corrective dynamics!!

Iago is currently a postdoc at Oxford University.

Huge congratulations!! Well deserved, Iago!

Munehiro Asally : 21 May 2022 18:57 |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem