Speaker
Ismaël Duchesne
(Laval University)
Description
*Ismaël Duchesne, Tigran Galstian, Simon Rainville*
*Department of Physics, Engineering Physics and Optics and Centre of Optics, Photonics and Lasers, Laval University, Québec, Québec, Canada*
The water solubility of lyotropic liquid crystals (LC) enables a variety of applications combining the physical symmetry breakdown with the aqueous host environment. More specifically, although knowledge of this type of LC is limited and their manipulation is rather delicate, their use for the study of biological phenomena is growing rapidly thanks to their biocompatibility. For example, they are used in the detection of biological molecules, viruses and in the study of the motility of bacteria in anisotropic liquid media. Several recent studies have shown a dramatic change in the behavior of E. coli bacteria when swimming in the lyotropic LC disodium cromolyn glycated (DSCG). To improve our understanding of this phenomenon, we observed the movements of E. coli bacteria in DSCG-water solutions of different concentrations. In addition, we measured the effective one-dimensional viscosity along the axes parallel and perpendicular to the director by tracking the diffusion of microparticles in DSCG solutions with concentration between 0% and 13% (by weight). The results of our study shed light on the behavior of motile microorganisms in anisotropic media and show interesting characteristics of the biocompatible DSCG LC.
Primary author
Ismaël Duchesne
(Laval University)
