Our data collection is driven by the combination of microfluidics and microscopy. We use a range of different microfluidic devices to expose bacteria to precisely defined chemical and physical environments and then use high-resolution imaging to record how the cells respond.

We often image over long-time periods (>24 h), following the cells from the moment they first attach to a surface to the resulting biofilm communities comprising thousands of individual bacteria. We then use a range of particle tracking approaches to follow individual cell, before analysing these huge datasets to quantify bacterial motility and behaviour. Often, we simultaneously follow changes in the sub-cellular localisation of fluorescently labeled proteins too, allowing us to develop our understanding across multiple levels, from the molecular to the multicellular. Finally, we map these behaviours back to the chemical and physical environments that each cell experiences.