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Waren Ruder used a mathematical model to demonstrate that bacteria can control the behavior of an inanimate device like a robot.
Credit: Virginia Tech

In a paper published July 16 in Scientific Reports, which is part of the Nature Publishing Group, a Virginia Tech scientist used a mathematical model to demonstrate that bacteria can control the behavior of an inanimate device like a robot.
"Basically we were trying to find out from the mathematical model if we could build a living microbiome on a nonliving host and control the host through the microbiome," said Ruder, an assistant professor of biological systems engineering in both the College of Agriculture and Life sciences and the College of Engineering.
"We found that robots may indeed be able to have a working brain," he said.
For future experiments, Ruder is building real-world robots that will have the ability to read bacterial gene expression levels in E. coli using miniature fluorescent microscopes. The robots will respond to bacteria he will engineer in his lab.
On a broad scale, understanding the biochemical sensing between organisms could have far reaching implications in ecology, biology, and robotics.
In agriculture, bacteria-robot model systems could enable robust studies that explore the interactions between soil bacteria and livestock. In healthcare, further understanding of bacteria's role in controlling gut physiology could lead to bacteria-based prescriptions to treat mental and physical illnesses. Ruder also envisions droids that could execute tasks such as deploying bacteria to remediate oil spills.
The findings also add to the ever-growing body of research about bacteria in the human body that are thought to regulate health and mood, and especially the theory that bacteria also affect behavior.
The study was inspired by real-world experiments where the mating behavior of fruit flies was manipulated using bacteria, as well as mice that exhibited signs of lower stress when implanted with probiotics.
Ruder's approach revealed unique decision-making behavior by a bacteria-robot system by coupling and computationally simulating widely accepted equations that describe three distinct elements: engineered gene circuits in E. coli, microfluid bioreactors, and robot movement.
The bacteria in the mathematical experiment exhibited their genetic circuitry by either turning green or red, according to what they ate. In the mathematical model, the theoretical robot was equipped with sensors and a miniature microscope to measure the color of bacteria telling it where and how fast to go depending upon the pigment and intensity of color.
The model also revealed higher order functions in a surprising way. In one instance, as the bacteria were directing the robot toward more food, the robot paused before quickly making its final approach -- a classic predatory behavior of higher order animals that stalk prey.
Ruder's modeling study also demonstrates that these sorts of biosynthetic experiments could be done in the future with a minimal amount of funds, opening up the field to a much larger pool of researchers.
The Air Force Office of Scientific Research funded the mathematical modeling of gene circuitry in E. coli, and the Virginia Tech Student Engineers' Council has provided funding to move these models and resulting mobile robots into the classroom as teaching tools.
Ruder conducted his research in collaboration with biomedical engineering doctoral student Keith Heyde, who studies phyto-engineering for biofuel synthesis.
"We hope to help democratize the field of synthetic biology for students and researchers all over the world with this model," said Ruder. "In the future, rudimentary robots and E. coli that are already commonly used separately in classrooms could be linked with this model to teach students from elementary school through Ph.D.-level about bacterial relationships with other organisms."
Ruder spoke about his development in a recent video.

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Virginia Tech. The original item was written by Amy Loeffler. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Marian Wilson, an assistant professor in the College of Nursing, tracked 43 people with chronic non-cancer pain as they went through an eight-week course of online tools to manage psychological, social and health issues associated with chronic pain. Compared to a similar-sized control group, the participants reported that they adopted more practices to change negative thinking patterns and use relaxation techniques to help control pain.
"With negative emotions, you often have that physical response of tension," said Wilson. "So we really want people with pain to learn they have control and mastery over some of those physical symptoms. Meditation and relaxation can help with that."
Such techniques are hard for patients to get in traditional care settings but can go a long way to make them more confident about managing their pain, she said. Several studies have found that such confidence, called "self-efficacy," is linked to a higher quality of life, the ability to return to work and higher levels of activity, she said.
"Maybe that pain is never going to go away but you can divert your attention from it," said Wilson. "You can focus on more positive things and you can absolutely get that thought on a back burner rather than fixating on it."
She found that four out of five online program participants made progress toward goals to reduce or eliminate pain or other unspecified medications, as opposed to roughly half the control group.
"Unique to our study was the discovery that more appropriate use of opioid medicines could be an unintended consequence of participation," Wilson and her colleagues write in the journal Pain Management Nursing.
The authors note that 60 percent of the more than 15,000 opioid-overdose deaths each year in the United States are from medications obtained through legitimate prescriptions. Opioids also can become less effective over time while actually increasing a user's perception of pain.
"For many patients, more and more evidence is coming out that if we can get them off the opiates, or reduce their use and help them become more active, they'll actually feel better," Wilson said. "Plus they won't be at risk for death from opioid overdose, which they're at risk for now because you often have to keep increasing the opioid dose to get the same pain relief."

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Washington State University. The original item was written by Eric Sorensen. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.

Originally used by 19th-century photographers to create the illusion of depth in their pictures, stereomicroscopy since has evolved to become a staple of the film and videogame industries. Only recently has it become more prevalent in medicine, one factor that makes these findings particularly important.
Using 3D-pattern stereomicroscopy with mouse models, School of Medicine researchers reported that they able to develop entire topographical views of the inside of the intestinal system, rather than two-dimensional visuals of individual sections or tissue or cell samples. This more expansive and detailed picture allowed them to identify distinct patterns related both to health and disease within those structures -- patterns that they could not see using traditional approaches.
As part of the study, the researchers developed a catalogue of specific profiles for abnormalities in those with inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD). Not only do these profiles provide a depth of information not attainable by other means, but they also can accelerate the process of determining the condition or illness that is plaguing the patient.
"This is really exciting for us because for the first time, we have a technique that provides a better way to examine these lesions," said senior author Fabio Cominelli, MD, chief of the Division of Gastroenterology and Liver Disease and the Hermann Menges, Jr. Chair in Internal Medicine, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine. "The traditional, two-dimensional histology views do not tell us what is going on in the entire tissue. The precision of this 3D technology will allow us to visualize the location of lesions along the entire intestinal tract to learn the exact cause of the inflammation."
Cominelli, also director of the Digestive Health Institute at University Hospitals Case Medical Center, has assembled a team of investigators to focus research on inflammatory diseases of the digestive tract, particularly Crohn's disease, inflammatory bowel disease and ulcerative colitis. One of those team members, Alexander Rodriguez-Palacios, DVM, PhD, made the breakthrough possible by identifying a novel way to use a stereomicroscope, a device often used in microsurgery. Typically physicians have been limited to endoscopy or histology in studying these diseases; recognizing their shortcomings, the team sought other means of gaining better understanding of the nature of different diseases. The more they knew about different conditions, the thinking went, the more effective they could be in helping patients.
""Currently, we have treatments that can make the patient feel better, but we are not able to achieve a sustained positive response in patients," Cominelli said. "The goal for developing new therapies now is to have lesions disappear, or possibly prevent lesions from appearing in the first place."
Cominelli, Rodriguez-Palacios, and their colleagues set out to test the efficacy of this alternative approach by studying the inflammatory-diseased intestinal tracts of more than 800 mice from 16 strains of the animals. During the course of their study, the scientists saw distinct patterns of lesions develop in the different kinds of mice. These different patterns point to genetic origins for the various inflammatory intestinal diseases.
"What we saw were unique structural characteristics in inflamed tissue and in normal tissue," Rodriguez-Palacios said. "Before, a lesion was just a lesion. We found that these lesions had a particular configuration. Now we can tell the different kinds of lesions and patterns of lesions that make a difference in the disease. Nobody has ever done that before."
Through 3D microscopy, investigators found two mouse models that most resemble inflammatory bowel disease in humans. The SAMP mouse has cobblestone lesions typical of human Crohn's disease, and the TNF mouse has enlarged and distorted intestinal villa typical of inflammatory bowel disease. (Villa are finger-like projections protruding from the intestinal wall to aid in nutrient absorption.)
By studying both mouse models using 3D stereoscopy, investigators hope to make informed predictions about how these inflammatory bowel diseases develop and progress in humans. They also plan to observe the natural history of the illness, from early onset through end stages. They also aim to uncover what causes these intestinal diseases, what genes are expressed, underexpressed or overexpressed, and what intricacies are involved in the microbe environment of the gut.
"We will use the 3D stereoscopy to study these mouse models extensively to understand what causes the disease in mice," Cominelli said, "[and then] correlate that understanding to human patients and then develop new therapies."

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The above post is reprinted from materials provided by Case Western Reserve University. Note: Materials may be edited for content and length.