Development of an integrated optical analyzer for characterization of growth dynamics of bacterial colonies

In order to understand the biophysics behind collective behavior of a bacterial colony, a confocal displacement meter was used to measure the profiles of the bacterial colonies, together with a custom built optical density circuits. The system delivered essential information related to the quantitative growth dynamics (height, diameter, aspect ratio, optical density) of the bacterial colony. For example, the aspect ratio of S. aureus was approximately two times higher than that of E. coli O157 : H7, while the OD of S. aureus was approximately 1/3 higher than that of E. coli O157 : H7.