The Artwork of Biofilm Pictures: From Petri Dish to Portrait

Microbiologist Scott Chimileski research microbial biofilms on the Marine Organic Laboratory (MBL), exploring their intricate interactions and structural group. His first brush with biofilms started throughout his graduate research on the College of Connecticut, the place he used confocal microscopy to seize time-lapse pictures of halophilic archaeal biofilms, that are comparatively underexplored.¹ “That’s the place I actually acknowledged the great thing about biofilms and their visible facets,” he shared.

A lifelong curiosity in pictures complemented his scientific pursuits, and the 2 passions merged absolutely throughout his postdoctoral work in Roberto Kolter’s lab at Harvard Medical College. Kolter, a fellow fanatic for the creative facets of science, inspired Chimileski to nurture this pursuit. “The 2 turned completely, irreversibly intertwined,” Chimileski added. 

Ever since, Chimileski has captured the intricate buildings of a whole lot of bacterial biofilms at microscopic and macroscopic scales. Utilizing a customized incubator digital camera setup, he created detailed time-lapse movies of colony development, whereas electron microscopy allowed him to delve into mobile interactions on the micron degree. This work resulted in a wealthy assortment of detailed time-lapses. His in depth portfolio showcases micro organism with distinctive traits, utilizing pictures to share the wonder and complexity of microbes with scientists and the general public alike.

Curating Microbial Displays in Museums

Chimileski’s ardour for sharing science led to an interactive exhibition, Microbial Life: A Universe on the Fringe of Sight, which he co-curated with Kolter. Hosted from 2018–2022 on the Harvard Museum of Pure Historical past, the exhibit invited museum-goers—scientists and curious onlookers alike—to immerse themselves within the microbes present in on a regular basis life and pure environments.

Guests encountered acquainted sights, equivalent to a full-scale kitchen, and explored a reside demo microscopy station with a rotating array of samples, from mud to kombucha. “I interacted lots with the general public,” stated Chimileski. “The reside demo station gave us a relentless alternative to introduce new matters and topics. It was a relentless supply of recent info.”

In one other exhibit, Chimileski mounted 4 outsized Petri dishes onto the wall, every showcasing totally different residing bacterial colonies. “Actual development and microbial evolution had been taking place inside these residing Petri dish shows,” stated Chimileski. “You possibly can see mutants rising on the fringe of colonies and spreading sooner.” For instance, onlookers may watch a white Streptomyces colony slowly develop a wealthy halo of blue—an antibiotic referred to as actinorhodin. “You’re seeing the pure pigment produced by the micro organism and the antibiotic manufacturing,” he defined. “That is necessary as a result of half of our clinically-used antibiotics come from these soil micro organism.”

Reserving a New Chapter: An Exploration of Microbes Across the World  

Parallel to the exhibit, Chimileski and Kolter coauthored Life on the Fringe of Sight: A Photographic Exploration of the Microbial World. This ebook highlighted a set of Chimileski’s laboratory pictures and explored microbes’ roles within the historical past of the Earth and other people’s lives. “One of many main themes of the ebook focuses on the macroscopic facet of microbes,” he defined. “Whereas particular person microbes are microscopic, they manifest themselves macroscopically in all kinds of the way, from biofilms to those blooms of coccolithophores.” 

Chimileski traveled to microbial science websites throughout the planet, describing these locations as “Meccas of microbiology”. His journeys took him on hikes by the backcountry of Capitol Reef Nationwide Park to seek out stromatolites—fossils of cyanobacteria—and to the White Cliffs of Dover in the UK, the place the long-lasting chalk cliffs are composed of algae bloom skeletons of coccolithophores. 

Exploring Mouth Microbes Inside Hedgehog Biofilms

After these initiatives concluded, Chimileski shifted his focus to learning biofilms within the oral microbiome, equivalent to dental plaque, at MBL. “Biofilms aren’t simply amorphous piles of micro organism, however the totally different species in these biofilms are localized relative to one another in recurring patterns or buildings,” he defined. One such construction, referred to as the hedgehog, options about 10 totally different bacterial species.² These hedgehog communities, beforehand highlighted for his or her function in human well being on the exhibit, supply a window into the intricate group of microbial life. 

On the coronary heart of those hedgehog buildings lies one bacterium referred to as Corynebacterium matruchotii, which kinds the central scaffolding.³ To review these buildings, Chimileski cultured bacterial species collectively and used time-lapse imaging to watch their interactions. In a single real-time experiment, he by chance stumbled upon a novel manner C. matruchotii divided. “It grew as a protracted filament at just one pole, referred to as tip extension, which, in and of itself, is attention-grabbing. After it reaches a sure size, the cell divides concurrently into 10 or extra cells directly, which known as a number of fission,” remarked Chimileski. He contrasted this with binary fission, the textbook mannequin for bacterial division, emphasizing that this distinctive conduct may need been ignored utilizing conventional fluorescence in situ hybridization strategies, which require killing the cells.

Chimileski plans to proceed capturing these pictures, delving deeper into the unseen behaviors of microbial communities. Trying forward, he hopes to proceed his science communication initiatives with displays and hopefully one other ebook—probably a ten^th-anniversary version—full of extra discoveries he’s but to uncover.