Yan Lab Published in Nature Physics

An approach combining single-cell imaging, agent-based simulations, and continuum mechanics theory is used to observe the effect of environmental stiffness on bacterial biofilm development. These measurements indicate that confined biofilms behave as active liquid crystal materials, in which the internal organization and cell lineage are controlled by the shape and boundary of the biofilm. This work is led by a former postdoctoral researcher Japinder Nijjer in the Yan lab (currently at AstraZeneca). It is also highlighted in the same issue of the journal here.