Raman microspectroscopy (RMS) is an established tool to investigate the growth-dependent metabolism of bacteria [1]. However, certain metabolites are only found in mikro- or even millimolar concentrations and fall therefore underneath the detection limit of RMS. A known method to enhance Raman signals up to 1010-fold is to measure the sample in close proximity to the surface of gold or silver nanostructures. Recently, SERS has been used to investigate the metabolism of P.aeruginosa bacteria as well as biofilm formation [2]. In this work we want to establish SERS as a tool to measure bacterial supernatants in an Organ-on-a-chip approach. The goal is to quantify the metabolites of different bacteria species based on their growth profile in RPMI medium.
Tasks
- Measure the growth curves of different bacteria species (Partner: AG Krismer)
- Filter bacteria supernatants at given timepoints
- Measure bacteria supernatants via SERS
- Discriminate bacteria based on their metabolic profiles
What we are looking for
Bachelor or Master student of Biochemistry, Chemistry, Biomedical technologies or similar. Preferred start date is April 2025
Who we are
The Schenke-Layland Lab focuses on the translation of human development into clinically relevent biomaterials and regenerative therapies and the development of diagnostic tools to discover and validate therapuetic candidates and diagnose disease. Link.
Contact
Emanuel.behling@uni-tuebingen.de
References
[1] U. Neugebauer et al., “Towards a detailed understanding of bacterial metabolism – Spectroscopic characterization of Stophylococcus epidermidis,” ChemPhysChem, vol. 8, no. 1, pp. 124–137, 2007, doi: 10.1002/cphc.200600507.
[2] C. Q. Nguyen et al., “Longitudinal Monitoring of Biofilm Formation via Robust Surface-Enhanced Raman Scattering Quantification of Pseudomonas aeruginosa -Produced Metabolites,” ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces, vol. 10, no. 15, pp. 12364–12373, 2018, doi: 10.1021/acsami.7b18592.