Unravel the mechanics for bacteria

The National Institutes of Health (NIH) estimated that bacterial biofilms are involved in 65% of microbial diseases and in more than

80% of chronic infections. Most of the existing antimicrobial strategies are to develop coatings that release chemical agents such as

antibiotics and silver ions to kill the bacteria. However, these chemical-based bactericidal strategies can often contribute to the

emergence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). The development of AMR presents a global challenge that threatens to undermine

many of the advances of modern medicine, with the consequential massive human and financial costs . It is expected that AMR will

kill more people than cancer and diabetes combined by 2050 by World Health Organisation (WHO). Therefore, there is a pressing need to develop novel strategies to kill bacteria without involving antibiotics.

Recently, bio-inspired nanostructures have been proposed to kill bacteria by mechanically rupturing bacteria cell wall, which

represents a novel approach to tackle biofilm infection. However, these nanostructure's antimicrobial efficiency varies significantly

between bacterial species, which hinders their future applications. To predict the complicated bacterial killing process by

nanostructures and aid the development of next generation of structured surface to enable efficient antimicrobial for a wide spectrum of bacteria, it is essential to understand the mechanics of bacteria envelop with different structures.

Therefore, this fellowship aims to determine stiffness and viscosity of key subcellular structures of bacteria, determine the mechanical

strength of different bacteria and predict bacterial death on various nanostructures based on bacterial mechanical properties, which has never been achieved before.