We introduce a flexible microfluidic device to characterize the mechanical properties of soft viscoelastic solids such as bacterial biofilms. In the device, stress is imposed on a test specimen by application of a fixed pressure to a thin, flexible poly(dimethyl siloxane) (PDMS) membrane that is in contact with the specimen. The stress is applied by pressurizing a microfabricated air channel located above the test area. The strain resulting from the applied stress is quantified by measuring the membrane deflection with a confocal laser-scanning microscope. The deflection is governed by the viscoelastic properties of the PDMS membrane and of the test specimen. The relative contributions of the membrane and test material to the measured deformation are quantified by comparing a finite element analysis and an independent (control) measurement of the PDMS membrane mechanical properties. The flexible microfluidic rheometer was used to characterize both the steady-state elastic modulus and transient strain recoil of two soft materials: gellan gums and bacterial biofilms. The measured linear elastic moduli and viscoelastic relaxation times of gellan gum solutions were in good agreement with the results of conventional mechanical rheometry. The linear Young’s moduli of biofilms of Staphylococcus epidermidis and Klebsiella pneumoniae, which could not be measured using conventional methods, were found to be 3.2 kPa and 1.1 kPa, respectively, and the relaxation time of the S. epidermidis biofilm was 13.8 s. Additionally, strain hardening was observed in all the biofilms studied. Finally, design parameters and detection limits of the method show that the device is capable of characterizing soft viscoelastic solids with elastic moduli in the range of 102 – 105 Pa. The flexible microfluidic rheometer addresses a need for mechanical property characterization of soft viscoelastic solids common in fields such as biomaterials, food and consumer products. It requires only ~ 200 pL of test specimen.

We studied the interaction between capsule production and hydrodynamic growth conditions on the internal and macroscopic structure of biofilms and spontaneously formed aggregates of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Wild-type and capsule-deficient strains were studied as biofilms and under strong and mild hydrodynamic conditions. Internal organization of multicellular structures was determined with a novel image-processing algorithm for feature extraction from high-resolution confocal microscopy. Measures included interbacterial spacing and local angular alignment of individual bacteria. Macroscopic organization was measured via the size distribution of aggregate populations forming under various conditions. Compared with wild-type organisms, unencapsulated mutant organisms formed more organized aggregates with less variability in interbacterial spacing and greater interbacterial angular alignment. Internal aggregate structure was not detectably affected by the severity of hydrodynamic growth conditions. However, hydrodynamic conditions affected both wild-type and mutant aggregate size distributions. Bacteria grown under high-speed shaking conditions (i.e., at Reynolds' numbers beyond the laminar-turbulent transition) formed few multicellular aggregates while clumpy growth was common in bacteria grown under milder conditions. Our results indicate that both capsule and environment contribute to the structure of communities of K. pneumoniae, with capsule exerting influence at an interbacterial length scale and fluid dynamic forces affecting overall particle size.

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We present an approach to teaching whereby students and faculty collaborate to explore subject matter through the creation of articles for an open-source textbook viewable using the wiki format. In this approach teams of students wrote sections of a new textbook for a senior level Chemical Engineering Process Controls course. The resulting text is available online at www.controls.engin.umich.edu/wiki. Each team of students presented their articles in a poster session during class, answered questions from other class members, and acted as personal tutors for the practice problems the group developed. The writing and presenting of articles provides opportunities for students to learn by teaching. Each article was also formally reviewed by other students in the class to provide suggestions and correct errors. The wiki authors then offered specific rebuttals where appropriate to the reviewer comments. Finally the original set of reviewers graded the wiki article in light of the suggested changes and rebuttals. Throughout this process, the instructors acted as advisors, gave the general topic outlines, provided reference material and made connections between the various student topics through short lectures. In addition to the wiki activity, the students were also given two exams, one group project and one individual project as assessment tools for the instructors. We present evidence in the form of standard course evaluations and grade distributions for the students' response to this approach.

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