Materials Research Laboratory

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CPLC Seminar: Ting Lu (UIUC) - "Bottom-up Assembly of Microbial Communities: Modeling, Analysis and Engineering"

Event Type
Seminar/Symposium
Sponsor
Ido Golding
Location
Loomis 144
Date
Oct 18, 2019   2:00 pm  
Speaker
Ting Lu (UIUC)
Contact
LaShonya Quince
E-Mail
lquince@illinois.edu
Phone
217-300-6726
Views
42
Originating Calendar
Physics - Biological Physics / iPoLS / STC-QCB Seminar

Abstract:

Microbial communities play profound roles in the environment, agriculture and human health. To exploit their potential for applications, a fundamental prerequisite is to decipher the basic rules of community organization in space and time. We aim to address the challenge using a bottom-up approach that integrates experimental synthetic biology with biophysical modeling. Recently, we developed a computational prototype that enables mechanistic simulation of microbial communities. We also explored how the mode of cellular social interaction and the spatial scale of interaction contribute to microbial assemblages using experimental ecosystems. With engineered cellular interactions, we further demonstrated the utility of synthetic ecosystems for metabolic engineering purposes. Our studies provide insights into the assembly of natural communities and illustrate the potential of synthetic consortia for practical purposes.

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