Guasto receives award from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation

Bacteria are invisible to the naked eye, but uncovering the logic behind their movements could be key to understanding their impact on our daily lives. From the movement of harmful bacteria through water to the flow of bacteria in the gut microbiome, these active matter flows affect the world around us. Thanks to an Experimental Physics Investigators award from the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, Professor Jeffrey Guasto in the Department of Mechanical Engineering will work to improve our understanding of how active matter moves to better predict its outcomes.

Active matter flows are difficult to study because they can seem unpredictable due to swimmer orientation, self-propulsion, and other factors. Lagranian coherent structures (LCS) describe theoretical material lines that guide the movement of particles through complex fluid flows. Imagine the flow of oil through the ocean during a spill. The surfaces with the largest attracting or repelling “force” (the LCS) can direct the particles of oil as they flow in a particular pattern through the water like an invisible skeleton of fluid flows.

LCSs have shown promise at unraveling active matter flows retroactively, but researchers like Guasto are working to apply them to forecast events before they occur. Anticipating the movement of active matter could lead to better understanding of the structure of ecosystems and how active matter flows could change in a shifting environment. For example, if scientists can understand how toxic algal blooms will move through a body of water, they may be able to predict or mitigate the negative impacts more effectively.

The study builds on Guasto’s previous work uncovering the behavior and motility patterns of swimming cells in flow. Through precision experiments on swimming bacteria, Guasto hopes to establish a new Lagrangian framework to better understand active matter transport. His work could be an important step towards fully grasping the biomechanics and transport properties of active cells in relation to flow patterns.

The implications of this work are far-reaching. Guasto’s research has the potential to impact our understanding of environmental processes such as marine ecosystems and the nitrogen cycle. For medicine and human physiology, the principles could be applied to the gut microbiome and infection dynamics. The outcomes of his work could also lead to engineering advances in self-assembly of novel materials, targeted drug delivery, and navigation strategies for microrobots.

The Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation advances scientific discovery, environmental conservation, and the special character of the San Francisco Bay Area. In 2022, the Foundation established the Experimental Physics Investigators Initiative to support the next generation of scientific leaders in physics. Individuals who recently received tenure are eligible to apply for the five-year grant. The funding facilitates new insights into experimental physics by encouraging researchers to tackle interesting research problems and explore new frontiers with enough flexibility to pivot if needed.

Learn more about Professor Jeffrey Guasto.