A first approach is to monitor the bacteria at the single cell level. To do so I developed a microfluidic chip integrated to a microscope in order to control the chemical environment of the bacteria. The microfluidic technology sketched in the image above allows to keep a steady environment at the bacterial scale. Thanks to this device we can follow the growth of microcolonies such as in the movie presented here.
From this movie big data analysis (neuronal network) can be performed to segment the images and extract valuable informations from the dynamical system.
The top part of the movie shows the bacteria producing an important molecules. The bottom part of the movie shows the shape of the same bacteria. We can see that the rod shape bacteria grow and split themselves with time to form microcolonies (few micrometers). In the same time the production of the important molecule is specific to each bacteria and “shared” between neighboors.