Abstract Bacteria are omnipresent in nature. They also play a key role in biomedical industry and new technologies. A capability to control their movement may be very useful both for their study and applications. Here we explore the possibility of such active control of the movement of flagellated bacteria (a bacterium that can swim thanks to the rotation of its long screw-like helix). We demonstrate that we can dynamically change the swimming direction of bacteria by incorporating them into a liquid crystal media where the phase transition is locally controlled by UV illumination. This work opens new avenues to develop lab-on-a-chip devices that could be used as a micro-farm to “harvest” and study bacteria.

中文翻译：

---

利用紫外光主动控制液晶基质中细菌游动方向

摘要 细菌在自然界中无处不在。它们还在生物医学行业和新技术中发挥着关键作用。控制他们运动的能力对于他们的研究和应用可能非常有用。在这里，我们探索了对鞭毛细菌（一种由于其长螺旋状螺旋的旋转而可以游泳的细菌）的运动进行这种主动控制的可能性。我们证明了我们可以通过将细菌结合到液晶介质中来动态改变细菌的游动方向，其中相变由紫外线照射局部控制。这项工作为开发可用作“收获”和研究细菌的微型农场的芯片实验室设备开辟了新途径。