Microbiome & Bacterial Community Biomechanics

This area combines the lab’s legacy work on bacterial adhesion and mechanotransduction with its current interest in microbiome organization, host-microbe systems, and multiscale community modeling.

Bacterial adhesion and mechanotransduction

The older foundation of this research program focused on the molecular and cellular biomechanics of bacterial adhesion. The lab studied how bacterial surface proteins interact with host and material interfaces, and how biochemical and mechanical cues together shape the early stages of infection and colonization.

This included computational and experimental work on Staphylococcus aureus, its adhesion proteins, and the mechanical features that govern binding to fibronectin, fibrinogen, integrins, and other targets. Those questions established a direct bridge between molecular-scale mechanics and community-scale biological behavior.

From bacterial cells to microbial communities

The current microbiome framing expands that mechanics-first perspective from individual adhesive systems to microbial communities and host-associated ecosystems. The lab investigates how bacterial populations organize in space, how they interact with host environments, and how gut biogeography and local mechanics help shape community structure.

That broader scope includes bacterial communities, host-microbe coupling, and the physical context in which microbial populations persist, spread, or reorganize across tissues and environments.

Multiscale modeling approaches

To study those systems, the lab uses a mix of agent-based, continuum, and data-integrated computational models. The goal is not only to describe microbial community composition, but also to explain the structural, spatial, and biomechanical drivers that organize microbiomes across scales.

Current framing

This research area now brings together bacterial mechanotransduction, microbiome biogeography, and multiscale host-microbe modeling into one coherent program. Representative outputs are available in the publications archive, and additional context about the lab’s current directions appears on the news and team pages.