Montana State University 4 articles published in JoVE Biology Harvesting and Disaggregation: An Overlooked Step in Biofilm Methods Research Kelli Buckingham-Meyer1, Lindsey A. Miller1, Albert E. Parker1, Diane K. Walker1, Paul Sturman1, Ian Novak1, Darla M. Goeres1 1Center for Biofilm Engineering, Montana State University This paper details methods that demonstrate three common biofilm harvesting and disaggregation techniques on two surface types, ruggedness testing of a harvesting method and minimum information to consider when choosing and optimizing harvesting and disaggregation techniques to increase reproducibility. Biology Inherent Dynamics Visualizer, an Interactive Application for Evaluating and Visualizing Outputs from a Gene Regulatory Network Inference Pipeline Robert C. Moseley1, Sophia Campione1, Bree Cummins2, Francis Motta3, Steven B. Haase1 1Department of Biology, Duke University, 2Department of Mathematical Sciences, Montana State University, 3Department of Mathematical Sciences, Florida Atlantic University The Inherent Dynamics Visualizer is an interactive visualization package that connects to a gene regulatory network inference tool for enhanced, streamlined generation of functional network models. The visualizer can be used to make more informed decisions for parameterizing the inference tool, thus increasing confidence in the resulting models. Immunology and Infection Quantifying the Cytotoxicity of Staphylococcus aureus Against Human Polymorphonuclear Leukocytes Jennifer G. Dankoff1, Kyler B. Pallister1, Fermin E. Guerra1, Alexander J. Parks1, Kelly Gorham2, Saul Mastandrea2, Jovanka M. Voyich1, Tyler K. Nygaard1 1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University, 2University Communications, Montana State University This protocol describes a method for the purification of polymorphonuclear leukocytes from whole human blood and two distinct assays that quantify the cytotoxicity of Staphylococcus aureus against these important innate immune cells. Immunology and Infection A Precise Pathogen Delivery and Recovery System for Murine Models of Secondary Bacterial Pneumonia Timothy R. Borgogna1, Adrian Sanchez-Gonzalez2, Kelly Gorham2, Jovanka M. Voyich1 1Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State University, 2University Communications, Montana State University Here, we present methods to improve secondary bacterial pneumonia studies by providing a non-invasive route of instillation into the lower respiratory tract followed by pathogen recovery and transcript analysis. These procedures are reproducible and can be performed without specialized equipment such as cannulas, guide wires, or fiber optic cables.