Microstructured materials are beginning to have an impact on microbiology. They make it possible to isolate, manipulate, and study single cells of bacteria and can be combined with chemical biology, biochemistry, genetics, optical microscopy, and scanning probe microscopy to study microbial physiology.

We are using materials--such as the microelectrode array shown above--to isolate and manipulate hundreds of individual cells of bacteria in parallel and study the dynamics of structural proteins that play a role in controlling cell shape. Tracking the dynamics of proteins in a large number of cells using spatial and time-resolved epifluorescence microscopy makes it possible for us to explore their function quantitatively.