Study of Bacterial Biofilms by Surface-enhanced Raman Microscopy

生物膜是微生物在自然环境中普遍存在的一种生活方式。它们可以生长在几乎所有与水接触的表面上。除了细胞成分外，细胞外聚合物（EPS）是生物膜基质的一个主要组成部分。关于EPS基质化学分布的详细知识与杀菌剂、防污策略和生物废水处理的优化等相关。表面增强拉曼光谱成像是一种在微米尺度上无损地研究生物膜成分详细化学信息的有效方法。主要目标是：1。1 .均匀、高分散、高灵敏度SERS纳米基板的设计与合成；利用SERS显微镜对EPS成分进行实时、体内、同步和多路成像研究。

Biofilms present a universal way of microbial life in a natural environment. They can grow on nearly every surface in contact with water. Besides cellular constituents, extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) are one major fraction of the biofilm matrix. The detailed knowledge about the chemical distributions of the EPS matrix is relevant e.g. for the optimization of biocides, of antifouling strategies and for biological wastewater treatment. A powerful approach to non-destructively investigate the detailed chemical information about the constituents of a biofilm on a micrometer scale is surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopic imaging. The main goals are:1. Design and synthesis of uniform, highly disperse and sensitive SERS nano-substrates;2. Real time, in vivo, simultaneous and multiplexed imaging studies of EPS constituents using SERS microscopy.