Finally: One may expect that simply supplying more nutrients can overcome this bottleneck. But we found that in some cases, excess nutrient can unexpectedly promote the regrowth of resistant cells—which is bad! [6/8]

We turned this intuition into a biophysical model that recapitulates the experiments, and yields principles that explain how collective nutrient consumption can slow the progression of this death front, protecting a population from a nominally deadly antibiotic dose. [5/8]

Lab tests of antibiotics usually study how they kill cells suspended in liquid. But in nature, bacteria inhabit spatially structured populations that can withstand antibiotics better. Why? We developed a way to probe this question in structured E. coli populations using granular hydrogels. [2/8]

Excited to share my latest thesis work:
doi.org/10.1101/2025...

Here, we show that when a bacterial population is exposed to antibiotic, death sweeps through it as a sharp front—with dynamics controlled by a "nutrient bottleneck". 🦠☠️

🧵 to follow... [1/8]