Bacterial biofilms are surface-attached microbial communities that play a crucial role in clinical infections and drug resistance. Yet key biofilm developmental processes, such as how cell distinct cell fates and specific divisions of labor emerge are still unclear. Using advanced microscopy and novel labeling technologies, we track the developmental trajectories and lineage evolution of single cells in bacterial biofilms. Our goal is to reveal the collective and cooperative behaviors within these dense cellular communities and to uncover mechanisms that drive biofilm formation and bacterial fate differentiation.
The striking morphology formed spontaneously by cells is widely present in nature and plays important biological functions. We explore the laws of morphogenesis of multicellular structures, focusing on their biomechanics, genetic regulation, and functional control.
Boyang Qin, Chenyi Fei, Andrew A. Bridges, Ameya A. Mashruwala, Howard A. Stone, Ned S. Wingreen, and Bonnie L. Bassler, Cell position fates and collective fountain flow in bacterial biofilms revealed by light-sheet microscopy, Science 369, 71-77 (2020).
Boyang Qin and Bonnie L. Bassler, Quorum-sensing control of matrix protein production drives fractal wrinkling and interfacial localization of Vibrio cholerae pellicles, Nat. Commun. 13, 6063 (2022).
Boyang Qin, Chenyi Fei, Bruce Wang, Howard A. Stone, Ned S. Wingreen, and Bonnie L. Bassler, Hierarchical transitions and fractal wrinkling drive bacterial pellicle morphogenesis, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 118, e2023504118 (2021).
Boyang Qin* and Paulo E. Arratia*, Confinement, chaotic transport, and trapping of active swimmers in time-periodic flows, Sci. Adv. 8, eadd6196 (2022). *: co-corresponding author. † Featured as journal cover.
Boyang Qin, Paul F. Salipante, Steve D. Hudson, and Paulo E. Arratia, Flow resistance and structures in viscoelastic channel flows at low Re, Phys. Rev. Lett. 123, 194501 (2019).
Boyang Qin*, Ranjiangshang Ran, Paul F. Salipante, Steve D. Hudson, and Paulo E. Arratia*, Three-dimensional structures and symmetry breaking in viscoelastic cross-channel flow, Soft Matter 16, 6969-6974 (2020). *: Co-corresponding author. † Featured as journal cover.
Boyang Qin*, Paul F. Salipante, Steve D. Hudson, and Paulo E. Arratia*, Upstream vortex and elastic wave in the viscoelastic flow around confined cylinder, J. Fluid Mech. 864, R2 (2019). *: co-corresponding author.
Boyang Qin and Paulo E. Arratia, Characterizing elastic turbulence in channel flows at low Reynolds number, Phys. Rev. Fluids 2, 083302 (2017).
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