Biophysical Properties of Mucus

The Mucociliary Clearance Consortium is a research program funded by the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation to cre-ate a community of researchers investigating key aspects of mucus biology, biophysics and clearance. CISMM is developing tools to measure particle diffusion in mucus relevant to drug delivery, and the ability to measure mucus rheology using driven bead techniques. The key technology for the consortium is the development of the high throughput techniques that will allow the testing of a wide variety of particles and mucus specimens. Previously, characterization techniques within CISMM correlated the physical mesh size of mucus with the blooming of bacterial colonies in thickened mucus characteristic of Cystic Fibrosis. We expect that new techniques for measuring specimens in a high throughput system will enable widespread use of rheology for establishing the biochemical basis for mucus rheology with applications to broad patient studies.

Size Dependent Bead Transport and Bacterial Colonization
Driven Bead Rheology of Mucus
Magnetic High Throughput System