Towards commercial application of a novel method to prevent and remove bacterial biofilms

生物膜是由细菌或真菌组成的，这些细菌或真菌生长在封闭在一层黏液中的大型群落中。这些微生物生物膜在家里很容易找到，通常生长在潮湿的表面(如浴室瓷砖、水龙头和水管)。通常情况下，这些生物膜对人体的风险很小，可以很容易地用标准的清洁产品去除。然而，在医疗保健和工业中，生物膜中生长的微生物会导致许多严重的问题。在工业环境/工业中，表面上堆积的泥浆导致许多与管道和机械堵塞相关的不同问题。在家里，微生物粘液会导致淋浴窗帘的污渍，以及洗碗机和洗衣机的管道和托盘中粘液的堆积。更严重的问题可能发生在医疗保健环境中。生物膜的粘液层包裹着制造它的微生物。这在微生物和它的环境之间提供了一种保护性屏障。在人受到细菌感染的情况下(如金黄色葡萄球菌伤口感染，通常在康复的医院患者中发现)，生物膜很难去除，它们使感染细菌对抗生素产生高度抗药性。因此，要治愈常常导致病人死亡的细菌生物膜感染是极其困难的。事实上，细菌和真菌生物膜在许多医疗条件下发挥着非常重要的作用，从严重的传染病到囊性纤维化等疾病。生物膜还涉及与医疗植入物相关的感染，甚至在日常健康问题中，如龋齿和牙菌斑的积累。我们正在开发一种新的方法来解决这些问题。制造生物膜的微生物也可以分散它们，允许微生物移动到新的地方。一些微生物故意破坏竞争对手微生物形成的生物膜，以窃取食物或其他资源。我们正在使用基于自然界中发现的技术来分解生物膜。我们已经分离出一种细菌，它可以分解生物膜基质的一个关键部分。这会导致整个生物膜的分解，并导致目标细菌从其生物膜保护状态中分散。我们也可以使用同样的方法来阻止新的生物膜材料的积累。因此，我们正在开发自然和安全的方法来控制医疗、家庭和工业环境中的生物膜。

Biofilms are made up of bacteria or fungi growing in large communities enclosed in a layer of slime. These microbial biofilms can be easily found in home, often growing on wet surfaces (such as bathroom tiles, taps and water pipes). Normally these biofilms pose little risk to people and can easily be removed by standard cleaning products. However, in both healthcare and industry microbes growing in biofilms can cause a multitude of serious problems. In industrial environments / industry the build up of slimes on surfaces leads to many different problems associated with the clogging of pipes and machinery. In the home microbial slimes lead to problems such as the staining of shower curtains and the build up of slime in the pipes and trays of dishwashers and washing machines. Much more serious problems can occur in healthcare environments. The slime layer of a biofilm encapsulates the microbe which made it. This provides a protective barrier between the microbe and its environment. In the case of a bacterial infection in a person (such as an Staphylococcus aureus wound infection, commonly found in recovering hospital patients) the biofilms are very difficult to remove and they make the infectious bacteria highly resistant to antibiotics. It is therefore extremely difficult to cure a bacterial biofilm infection often resulting in patient fatalities. In fact bacterial and fungal biofilms play a highly significant role in large number of medical conditions, from serious infectious diseases to conditions such as Cystic Fibrosis. Biofilms are also involved in infections related to medical implants and even in every day health issues such as tooth decay and plaque build up. We are developing a new approach to fight these problems. The microbes which make biofilms can also disperse them, allowing the microbes to move to new places. Some microbes deliberately break up the biofilms formed by competitor microbes, in order to steal food or other resources. We are using techniques based on those found in nature to break up biofilms. We have isolated a species of bacteria which can break down a key part of the biofilm matrix. This results in a break down of the whole biofilm and causes the target bacteria to disperse from their biofilm protected state. We can also use the same approach to stop the build up of new biofilm material. Thus we are developing natural and safe methods to control biofilms, in medical, household and industrial settings.