A paper from the laboratory of Bahareh Behkam, J.R. Jones Faculty Fellow and associate professor of Mechanical Engineering has been chosen as an Editor's Pick by the mSphere Journal. First author Eric Leaman is a doctoral student in Mechanical Engineering and J. R. Jones graduate fellow. Undergraduate students Alexie Jean Jacques (Virginia Western Community College) and Alvin Aung (Virginia Tech) are also co-authors on this paper.

Neutrophils, a type of white blood cells, are the first line of defense against invading microbes. Neutrophils’ response is a critical aspect of our body’s response to chronic and acute infection. Behkam Lab has developed innovative experimental and analytical engineering tools for in vitro screening of neutrophil response to pathogens. While this work is focused on the previously unexplored effects of Salmonella bacteria on immune cell behavior, the microfluidic platform and analytical tools developed as part of this work could also be beneficial for rapid in vitro screening of vaccine candidates or infectious pathogens isolated from patients.

mSphere is an open access journal published by the American Society for Microbiology.

Read the article