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，它们在一层粘液中大量生长。这些微生物生物膜很容易在家中找到，通常生长在潮湿的表面（如浴室瓷砖，水龙头和水管）。通常，这些生物膜对人的风险很小，并且可以很容易地通过标准清洁产品去除。然而，在医疗保健和工业中，在生物膜中生长的微生物可能会导致许多严重的问题。在工业环境/工业中，在表面上积聚的粘泥导致与管道和机械堵塞相关的许多不同问题。在家里，微生物粘泥会导致一些问题，如浴帘染色，洗碗机和洗衣机的管道和托盘中粘泥堆积。更严重的问题可能发生在医疗环境中。生物膜的粘液层包裹着形成生物膜的微生物，这在微生物和环境之间提供了一个保护屏障。在人的细菌感染的情况下（例如金黄色葡萄球菌伤口感染，通常在恢复中的医院患者中发现），生物膜非常难以去除，并且它们使感染性细菌对抗生素具有高度抗性。因此，治愈细菌生物膜感染非常困难，通常导致患者死亡。事实上，细菌和真菌生物膜在从严重感染性疾病到诸如囊性纤维化的病症的大量医学病症中发挥非常重要的作用。生物膜还涉及与医疗植入物相关的感染，甚至涉及日常健康问题，如蛀牙和牙菌斑积聚。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，使微生物移动到新的地方。有些微生物会故意破坏竞争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打破生物膜。我们已经分离出一种细菌，它可以分解生物膜基质的关键部分。这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分散。我们也可以使用相同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.