Title : “How do you build a wall? Using advanced light microscopy to understand the biophysics of bacterial division and growth”

My lab studies biophysical principles of bacterial cell wall biosynthesis, with a particular focus on the mechanistic principles of bacterial cell division and elongation. We work primarily with the Gram-positive model organism Bacillus subtilis. To tackle these questions my lab develops novel experimental methods based on single molecule & super-resolution fluorescence microscopy, microfabrication and microfluidics.

In this talk I will discuss some of our work on bacterial cell division, including the role of tubulin homologue FtsZ, which we discovered forms motile treadmilling filaments that play a critical role in regulating division. I will discuss unpublished work regarding the role of molecular motor tug-of-war in regulating the dynamics of the elongasome, a homologous machinery responsible for building the bacterial cell sidewall in rod-shaped bacteria, and in determining cell shape. I will also mention the open microscopy method development which supported these studies.