Biology and physics at the biofilm surface

生物膜是被细胞外基质包围的微生物群落。基质的功能就像胶水一样，为驻留的微生物提供结构和保护。生物膜的一个日常例子是牙菌斑。以牙菌斑为例，微生物通过获得难以获得的营养物质并变得难以从表面去除而受益于生活在生物膜中。在其他环境或情况下，生活在生物膜中的微生物对抗生素和其他抗菌剂产生抗药性，导致慢性感染或管道和导管堵塞。我们对生物膜是如何组装的很感兴趣。所需的主要组成部分已经确定，在这项提案中，我们的目标是了解其中之一是如何组装在生物膜群落成员周围形成保护层的。了解这种组装过程将使人们能够开发新的策略来阻止、逆转或增强生物膜在自然环境中的组装，并指导未来开发用于慢性衰弱生物膜感染的新型抗菌化合物。

Biofilms are communities of microbes that are surrounded by an extracellular matrix. The matrix functions like a glue to provide structure and protection to the resident microbes. An everyday example of a biofilm is dental plaque. As exemplified by dental plaque, microbes benefit from living in a biofilm by gaining access to hard-to-source nutrients and becoming difficult to remove from a surface. In other environments or situations microbes living in biofilms become resistant to antibiotics and other antimicrobial agents resulting in chronic infections or blockages in pipes and catheters. We are interested in how the biofilm is assembled. The main component parts that are needed have been identified and in this proposal we aim to understand how one of them assembles to form a protective coat around the members of the biofilm community. Understanding this assembly process will allow the development of novel strategies to block, reverse, or enhance biofilm assembly in the natural environment and guide future developments of novel antimicrobial compounds for chronic debilitating biofilm infections.