Computational inference of spatial microbial interactions from microscopic images

Abstract:
Microbial communities often form intricate spatial patterns driven by various biotic and abiotic factors, including microbial traits, interspecies interactions, and environmental conditions. However, identifying key biological and environmental parameters governing spatial patterns remains challenging due to limited computational and instrumental tools. In this seminar, I will introduce a new computational modeling framework that enables predicting context-dependent spatial interactions from microscopic image data. The proposed methodology is illustrated using microscopic image data characterizing the growth of three chitinolytic organisms in a microfluidic soil chip, with different physical and metabolic traits using carbon sources with varying complexity. In addition, a comparison of microbial interaction results for this consortium in well-mixed and spatial cultures will be discussed.

Speaker:
Manokaran Veeramani is a postdoctoral researcher in Prof. Hyun Seob-Song’s group at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln in the Biological Systems Engineering department. He obtained his Ph.D. in Chemical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Madras under the supervision of Prof. Sridharakumar Narasimhan and Dr. Nirav Bhatt. Prior to that, he did his Masters from NIT Warangal and Bachelors in Chemical Engineering from Alagappa College of Technology, Anna University. His research works have been published in journals such as Industrial & Engineering Chemistry Research, Reaction Chemistry and Engineering, and Chemical Engineering Science. His research interests include identification of chemical and biological systems, chemometrics, microbial network inference, and biogeochemical modeling.