Despite the fact that most organisms occupy two- and three-dimensional space in heterogeneous ways and do not exist in monoculture, much of our current knowledge about metabolic processes is derived from homogenizing, then analyzing, the chemical content of monocultures, for example by extrapolating nucleic acid profiles. We are addressing this fundamental dichotomy between the way that microbial cells exist and function in nature, and the way they are studied in the lab, by developing an innovative set of optical imaging principles combining multiple new technologies. These include metaoptical architectures and active in situ nanoscale control of the chemical environment, which are being applied in tandem to the microbial system, Myxococcus xanthus, a common soil microbe that grows readily in environments rich in complex organics. We are addressing two over-arching goals: (1) the development of new metaoptics-enabled approaches to imaging and spectroscopic characterization; and (2) the development of tools to control the chemical environment of a microbial sample with nanometer-scale precision. The first goal is being addressed by the design, fabrication, and characterization of new metasurfaces which can deliver super-resolution imaging through extreme confinement of the optical field, while the second goal is being addressed by developing electrochemical strategies to manipulate redox homeostasis on the nanoscale in microbial communities, principally by controlling the generation and delivery of reactive oxygen species (ROS) and characterizing their effect on fluorescent molecular sentinels.

Metaoptics enabled multifunctional imaging of single cells of <i>Myxococcus xanthus</i>

Macromolecular Chemistry: The Second Century

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ACS Spring 2020 National Meeting & Expo

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Metaoptics enabled multifunctional imaging of single cells of Myxococcus xanthus