Dr. Joe Larkin received the 2021 Maximizing Investigators’ Research Award (MIRA) to understand how multicellular behaviors emerge in bacterial colonies. His lab investigates how single-cell-level gene regulation of bacterium Bacillus subtilis and the physics of the local environment conspire to create cell-to-cell signaling networks and patterns of cell types that allow colonies to divide labor.
The MIRA supports research in an investigator’s laboratory that increases the understanding of biological processes and lays the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention. Dr. Larkin’s MIRA proposal contained two thrusts: 1) Understanding how ion channels of bacteria cells create cell-to-cell signaling networks and how membrane potential impacts cell physiology and gene expression; 2) Investigating how stereotyped spatial patterns of motile and matrix-produced cells emerge in bacterial biofilms. Dr. Larkin and his team hypothesized that these patterns form due to the inheritance of gene expression state as cells divide and mechanical interactions of different cell types during biofilm growth.
The first thrust was an extension of Dr. Larkin’s postdoctoral work investigating how bacterial cells propagate electro-chemical signals within their communities. The second thrust came from work that members of his lab did during their first year. His team created a computational model that predicted patterns of cell types in biofilms based on phenotype inheritance and mechanical interactions.
Congratulations, Joe!
