How does C. difficile spread across surfaces?

A healthy gut contains a diverse bacterial community. However, common antibiotics can damage this community, allowing pathogens such as Clostridium difficile (C. diff) to overtake other species and thrive. This species produces toxins that make patients very ill and can cause severe and occasionally fatal immunological complications. We currently rely on further antibiotics to treat C. diff so relapse is common and trapping many patients in a cycle of recurrent infection.

To spread around the gut C. diff cells use tiny 'grappling hooks' called pili. This project will use cutting-edge techniques, including massively parallel cell tracking and microfluidic devices, to simultaneously follow the movement of tens of thousands of cells, allowing us to resolve the fundamental physical and biological mechanisms at play. The experimental data will then be used to guide the development of new mathematical models of collective bacterial movement, using theory originally developed to understand liquid crystals.

In addition to developing microbiology skills, the student will gain experience in developing code and algorithms to make sense of "big data", with broad applications in both basic research and industry. The student involved with this project will work with a highly interdisciplinary team combining microbiology, computation, and mathematical modelling.