IGEM:IMPERIAL/2009/Measurement

Flagellar rotation

torque/speed characteristics

Flagellar rotatory motion has several applications. There are several techniques to quantify their torque/speed relations as measurable outputs.
I went to a talk by A. Karenowska who applied a magnetic field to immobilize a chimaeric rotor inserted to e-coli.
We can monitor different speeds of flagellar rotation in several ways, as described by:
http://www.pubmedcentral.nih.gov/pagerender.fcgi?artid=1233549&pageindex=1
Media:pgbiomed.ogg See pages 40 and 41 of pdf.

Possible applications

In this group they want to apply these methods to targeted drug delivery.
I say we take a more fleming approach...
Here we have: Magnetic fields, a rotor and flux of ions
Maybe the bacterial windmills will become true afterall...