Engineering multifunctional hierarchical surface microstructures for bacterial sensing and biofilm prevention

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Natural surfaces, such as plant leaves, and intestinal walls, feature complex microstructures which can respond to their environment, chemically and physically. For example, plants can open and close pores (stomata), and cells can sense chemical stimuli, and move microhairs (cilia) to cause diffusion, move mucus layers, and prevent bacterial adhesion. This proposal is directed towards the design and engineering of responsive microstructured surfaces that can be used to sense chemical species, and physically move arrays of microhairs, or pores, which are based on these biological examples. The active motion of the microhairs can be used to control surface diffusion of chemical species, or the adhesion of particles, or prevent the attachment of bacterial cells. The opening and closing of surface pores can be used to control drug release, or particle capture. Another important design element is the control of optically-tunable metal nanoparticles, which effect the sensitivity of certain quantitative chemical measurements (known as Raman spectroscopy). These moving surface structures will be designed to tune this sensing sensitivity, which could ultimately be very useful for the identification of bacterial strains. In this way, we are designing adaptive, complex surface microstructures that can respond to their environment using biological inspirations.