Notre Dame researcher helps discover "walking" properties of bacteria | News | Notre Dame News | University of Notre Dame Skip To Content Skip To Navigation Skip To Search University of Notre Dame Notre Dame News Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Home Contact Search Menu Home › News › Notre Dame researcher helps discover "walking" properties of bacteria Notre Dame researcher helps discover "walking" properties of bacteria Published: October 07, 2010 Author: William G. Gilroy Talk about a walk on the wild side: University of Notre Dame researcher Joshua Shrout is co-author of a new paper that shows that bacteria are capable of “standing up” and moving while vertical. Shrout, assistant professor of civil engineering and geological sciences and a member of Notre Dame’s Eck Institute for Global Health, has been studying the surface motility of bacteria since 2004. In 2008, UCLA researcher Gerard Wong suggested that an undergraduate bioengineering senior design group that he was advising track the bacterium Shrout was studying. After some interesting patterns were observed initially, Shrout collected more data to send to Wong’s group and they refined their analysis to allow for identification of very specific patterns by the bacteria, including “walking.” In a paper appearing in today’s edition of the journal Science, Shrout, Wong and other researchers report on their findings. “The significance of the work is that we show bacteria are capable of ‘standing up’ and moving while vertical,” Shrout said. “The analysis methodology developed by Gerard’s group made this observation possible. They developed a computer program to analyze time-lapse data series, just like those showing plant development that you watched on PBS as a kid, of bacterial motion on surfaces. By tracking thousands of bacteria for minutes to hours, the stand-up walking pattern was observed and verified to occur with some frequency.” Apart from being an extraordinary insight into the behavior of bacteria, the findings have important biomedical implications. “The significance to medicine is that the bacterium we study, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, causes lung, skin, eye and gastrointestinal infections,” Shrout said. “Such infections are, unfortunately, the leading cause of death for individuals with cystic fibrosis. As we learn more about how Pseudomonas aeruginosa colonizes surfaces, perhaps we can develop better methods to treat these infections.” Dominick Motto, who was graduated from Notre Dame in May with a degree in biology, worked with Shrout on the on the experiments used in the research analysis. “It has been great to work with Gerard’s group on this project because we have meshed multiple scientific approaches for this discovery,” Shrout said. “It also has been rewarding to integrate each level of researcher into this project: undergrad, graduate student, post-doc and professor. The ability to conduct cutting edge science while training future scientists is very rewarding.” Contact: Joshua Shrout, 574-631-1726, Joshua.shrout@nd.edu Posted In: Research Home Experts ND in the News Subscribe About Us Related October 05, 2022 Astrophysicists find evidence for the presence of the first stars October 04, 2022 NIH awards $4 million grant to psychologists researching suicide prevention September 29, 2022 Notre Dame, Ukrainian Catholic University launch three new research grants September 27, 2022 Notre Dame, Trinity College Dublin engineers join to advance novel treatment for cystic fibrosis September 22, 2022 Climate-prepared countries are losing ground, latest ND-GAIN index shows For the Media Contact Office of Public Affairs and Communications Notre Dame News 500 Grace Hall Notre Dame, IN 46556 USA Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube Pinterest © 2022 University of Notre Dame Search Mobile App News Events Visit Accessibility Facebook Twitter Instagram YouTube LinkedIn