Tag Archives: Royal Society

Real-time label-free tracking of bacteriophages interacting with bacteria

Leave a reply
(a) Two-dimensional random dynamics (blue line) of a pelp20 bacteriophage monitored for a period of 5 s. Scale bar, 2 µm. (b) A plot of the same dynamics and (c) the mean square displacement (MSD) of the random walk. The MSD of the random walk is represented by square data points, and a linear fit (black line) has been applied to the data.

(a) Two-dimensional random dynamics (blue line) of a pelp20 bacteriophage monitored for a period of 5 s. Scale bar, 2 µm. (b) A plot of the same dynamics and (c) the mean square displacement (MSD) of the random walk. The MSD of the random walk is represented by square data points, and a linear fit (black line) has been applied to the data (Figure 4 from https://royalsocietypublishing.org/view-large/figure/20098614/rsif.2026.0250.f004.tif)

I was excited last month when our latest research on tracking nano-entities was published by the Journal of the Royal Society Interface.  The paper describes the real-time and label-free tracking of bacteriophages, or phages, in an optical microscope using caustics (see right thumbnail).  Phages are of interest due to the potential applications in biotechnology and medicine.  They selectively infect and replicate within bacteria and play an important role in regulating bacterial populations across many ecosystems.  I have written previously about the threat of antimicrobial resistant (AMR) infections and our research on the real-time tracking of individual bacterium that could be responsible for such infections [see ‘Label-free real-time tracking of individual bacterium‘ on January 25th, 2023].  In this newly published paper, we describe tracking phages as they interact with and compromise bacteria (see bottom thumbnail) using the same technique, optical caustics [see ‘Caustics‘ on October 15th, 2024 and application to ‘Nanoparticle motion through heterogeneous hydrogels‘ on November 6th, 2024 and to ‘Corona-induced transition from molecular to particle motion in biological media‘ on December 4th, 2024]. Traditionally, phages have been monitored using fluorescent labelling because their size is nanometric which renders them invisible in a conventional optical microscope.  However, chemically attaching labels to nano entities has been shown to influence their dynamics.  Hence, this new study represents a significant advance that will accelerate the real-time observation of phage-bacteria interactions which will enable the development of phage-based diagnostics and antimicrobial therapies.

Sources:

Francesco Giorgi, Samuel Chenery, Liberty Duignan, Joanne L. Fothergill, Eann Patterson, Judith M. Curran; Elucidating bacteriophage dynamics and interactions with real-time label-free optical imaging. J R Soc Interface 1 May 2026; 23 (238): 20260250. https://doi.org/10.1098/rsif.2026.0250

Details of E. coli bacteria: (a) not exposed (reprinted from [17]) and (b,c) exposed to a population of EcoLiv25 phages in solution. In (b), the arrow points at the supposed presence of a phage attached to the bacterium’s external membrane, while in (c), the arrows point at the compromised sections of the bacterium’s external membrane as a result of phage infection. Scale bars, 2 µm.

Details of E. coli bacteria: (a) not exposed and (b,c) exposed to a population of EcoLiv25 phages in solution. In (b), the arrow points at the supposed presence of a phage attached to the bacterium’s external membrane, while in (c), the arrows point at the compromised sections of the bacterium’s external membrane as a result of phage infection. Scale bars, 2 µm (Figure 6 from https://royalsocietypublishing.org/view-large/figure/20098622/rsif.2026.0250.f006.tif).

Commoditisation of civil nuclear power

1 Reply

Logo for BBC Inside ScienceA colleague and I published a paper last month that we hope will bring about a paradigm shift in the nuclear power industry. I was interviewed on BBC Radio 4’s Inside Science on the day following its publication – its the first time one of my scientific papers has made that big a splash in the media!  You can listen to the programme on BBC Sounds at https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001zdwv.

In the paper we describe a blueprint for the factory-production of sealed micro-power units with a digitally-enabled, holistic assurance framework.  Currently, several designs of micro-reactors are progressing to the prototype stage with hazards contained on-site.  The integration of these approaches enables a transformation of the regulatory regime to type or series approval at the factory, similar to the aerospace industry, and supported by digital tools such as block chains to provide transparent quality assurance within the supply chain.  The transformation of the regulatory regime and the shift to ‘flow’ production in a factory would remove the financial risk from the power plant to the factory thereby enabling nuclear power to become a realistic competitor for intermittent green energy sources, such as wind and solar, both in terms of financial and ecological costs.  The output from three production lines could replace the current electricity generating capacity from fossil fuels in the UK over approximately 15 years thus making a significant contribution to achieving net zero greenhouse gas emissions.  We propose a design philosophy for the micro-power units that will allow them to go unnoticed in an urban environment or even become an iconic product that signals a community’s commitment to responsible stewardship of the Earth’s resources.  Our blueprint represents a revolutionary change for the nuclear power industry that would likely lead to the commoditisation of nuclear power whereas the status quo probably leads to extinction.

The paper is published with open access (its free) at Patterson EA & Taylor RJ, 2024, The commoditisation of civil nuclear power, Royal Society Open Science, 11:240021.

Structural damage assessment using infrared detectors in fusion environments

1 Reply

Schematic representation of plasma flux in a fusion reactorAbout six months ago, I described the success of my research group in detecting the early stages of the development of damage in structural components using small, cheap devices based on infrared measurements [see ‘Seeing small changes is a big achievement‘ on October 26th, 2022] after it had been reported in the Proceedings of the Royal Society.  The research was motivated by the needs of the aerospace industry and largely supported via the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme.  We are planning to extend the research to allow our technology to be used for diagnostics in future fusion power plants.  Plasma facing components in these powerplants will experience significant structural and functional degradation in service due to the extreme condition in the reactor.  Our aim is to develop systems based on our infrared monitoring technology that can identify and track material degradation without the need for plant shutdown thereby enabling unplanned maintenance to be undertaken at the earliest sign of component failure.  We are collaborating with the UKAEA and are looking to recruit a PhD student to work on the project supported by the GREEN CDT and Eurofusion.  If you are interested or know someone who might be interested then please follow this link for more information.

Reference:

Amjad, K., Lambert, C.A., Middleton, C.A., Greene, R.J., Patterson, E.A., 2022, A thermal emissions-based real-time monitoring system for in situ detection of cracks, Proc. R. Soc. A., 478: 20210796.

Seeing small changes is a big achievement

3 Replies

Figure 8 from Amjad et al 2022Some years ago I wrote with great excitement about publishing a paper in Royal Society Open Science [see ‘Press release!‘ on November 15th, 2017].  This has become a routine event; however, the excitement returned earlier this month when we had a paper published in the Proceedings of Royal Society of London on ‘A thermal emissions-based real-time monitoring system for in situ detection of cracks’.  The Proceedings were first published in February 1831 and this is only the second time in my career that my group has published a paper in them.  The last time was ten years ago and was also about cracks: ‘Quantitative measurement of plastic strain field at a fatigue crack tip’.  I have already described this earlier work in a post [see ‘Scattering electrons reveal dislocations in material structure’ on November 11th, 2020].  This was the first time that the size and shape of the plastic zone around a crack had been measured directly rather than inferred from other measurements.  It required an expensive scanning electron microscope and a well-equipped laboratory.  In contrast, the work in the paper published this month uses components that can be purchased for the price of a smart phone and assembled into a device not much larger than a smart phone.  The device detects the changes in the temperature distribution over the surface of the metal caused by the propagation of a crack due to repeated loading of the metal.  It is based on the principles of thermoelastic stress analysis [see ‘Counting photons to measure stress‘ on November 18th, 2015], which is a well-established measurement technique that usually requires expensive infra-red cameras.  Our key innovation is to not aim for absolute measurement values, which allows us to ignore calibration requirements, and instead to look for changes in the temperature distribution on the metal surface by extracting feature vectors from the images [see ‘Recognising strain‘ on October 28th 2015].  Our approach lowers the cost of the equipment required by several orders of magnitude, achieves comparable or better resolution of crack growth (around 1 mm) and will function at lower loading frequencies than techniques based on classical thermoelastic stress analysis.  Besides crack analysis, the common theme of the two papers is the innovative use of image processing to identify change, based on the fracture mechanics of crack propagation.

The research reported in this month’s paper was largely performed as part of the DIMES project about which I have written many posts.

The University of Liverpool was the coordinator of the DIMES project and the other partners were Empa, Dantec Dynamics GmbH and Strain Solutions Ltd.  Airbus was the topic manager on behalf of the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking.

Logos of Clean Sky 2 and EUThe DIMES project received funding from the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreement No. 820951.

The opinions expressed in this blog post reflect only the author’s view and the Clean Sky 2 Joint Undertaking is not responsible for any use that may be made of the information it contains.

References:

Amjad, K., Lambert, C.A., Middleton, C.A., Greene, R.J., Patterson, E.A., 2022, A thermal emissions-based real-time monitoring system for in situ detection of cracks, Proc. R. Soc. A., doi: 10.1098/rspa.2021.0796.

Yang, Y., Crimp, M., Tomlinson, R.A., Patterson, E.A., 2012, Quantitative measurement of plastic strain field at a fatigue crack tip, Proc. R. Soc. A., 468(2144):2399-2415.

Image: Figure 8 from Amjad et al, 2022, Proc. R. Soc. A., doi: 10.1098/rspa.2021.0796.