Spatial Dynamics of Microbial Life

Microbes are everywhere — in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the soil beneath our feet, and within our own bodies. They play essential roles in health, ecosystems, and the balance of life on Earth. Recent advances in biophysics and imaging analysis have opened new avenues for studying the spatial dynamics of microbial life across scales — from subcellular processes to interspecies interactions. In this session, we will explore how both non-pathogenic and pathogenic microbes — including fungi, bacteria, and viruses — sense, interact with, and influence their environments. We will highlight a range of state-of-the-art approaches, including high-resolution imaging, spatial transcriptomics, quantitative analysis, and biophysical modeling, and discuss how these methods reveal fundamental principles of microbial physiology, with implications that go beyond the microbial world. Techniques covered will include single-molecule RNA imaging in fixed and live cells, studies of nuclear and cytoplasmic dynamics, and spatial transcriptomic analyses. The speaker’s research will span multiple scales, from molecular noise and intracellular dynamics to interspecies communication and the organization of microbial networks.