Research Highlights
Datta Lab
Bacteria in Polymers Form Cables that Grow into Living Gels
Scientists at Caltech and Princeton University have discovered that bacterial cells growing in a solution of polymers, such as mucus, form long cables that buckle and twist on each other, building a kind of "living Jell-O."
The finding could be particularly important to the study and treatment of diseases such as cystic fibrosis, in which the mucus that lines the lungs becomes more concentrated, often causing bacterial infections that take hold in that mucus to become life threatening. This discovery could also have implications in studies of polymer-secreting conglomerations of bacteria known as biofilms—the slippery goo on river rocks, for example—and in industrial applications where they can cause equipment malfunctions and health hazards.
Hadt Lab
Quantum Sensing Using Ultrafast Laser Pulses and a New Class of Molecular Probes
In a paper recently published in the journal Science, researchers in the lab of Ryan G. Hadt, assistant professor of chemistry at Caltech, describe how a class of molecules can be used in combination with femtosecond pulses of light (lasting just a few millionths of a billionth of a second) to measure instances of superposition at room temperature. Specifically, they show how to measure electron spin superpositions, a quantum mechanical property that determines the direction of a magnetic field produced by an electron.
Ismagilov Lab
Caltech Joins National Human Virome Program
Rustem Ismagilov, Caltech's Ethel Wilson Bowles and Robert Bowles Professor of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Merkin Institute Professor, and director of the Jacobs Institute for Molecular Engineering for Medicine, has received a four-year grant to develop two innovative tools that hold the promise of greatly improving scientists' ability to detect, sequence, and identify viruses. His lab has a long history of developing precise quantitative measurements of biological entities down to the single-molecule level, including in complex sample types such as human biopsy samples.
Stoltz Group
Breaking Carbon–Hydrogen Bonds to Make Complex Molecules
A team of scientists led by Caltech and Emory University has synthesized a highly complex natural molecule using a novel strategy that functionalizes normally nonreactive bonds, called carbon–hydrogen (C–H) bonds. The work demonstrates a new category of reactions that organic chemists can consider as they work to create natural products that could be used in pharmaceuticals or new materials, or to produce organic chemicals in more sustainable ways.