67th Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics (November 23, 2014 — November 25, 2014)

P0019: Cilia-powered particle streaming

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Authors

• Janna Nawroth, Harvard University
• Eva Kanso, USC
• John Dabiri, Caltech
• Margaret McFall-Ngai, University of Wisconsin at Madison

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/APS.DFD.2014.GFM.P0019

Cilia are microscopic hair-like structures lining the surface of fluid-filled cavities and tubes of the body that interact with bacteria, such as the respiratory and urinary system. Here, we visualize the surprisingly complex, 3D flow patterns generated by organized cilia beating in an intact organism, the Hawaiian bobtail squid. This suggests that in the body, cilia fluid dynamics could play an important role in sensing, sampling, and sorting flow-borne bacteria, and thus aid in maintaining a healthy microbiome by preventing bacterial infection while allowing beneficial microbes to persist.