Investigating the effect of nanoscale vibration cues on material surfaces for preventing bacterial adhesion

细菌生物被膜是医院感染的主要原因，增加了医疗器械和植入物相关感染的耐药性。因此，迫切需要防止细菌附着到这种设备上。最近的研究表明，细菌通过模拟表面黏附、增殖和毒力等表型来响应机械刺激，包括振动诱导的独特动态机制。然而，人们对支撑这些反应的机制知之甚少。我们的目标是了解这一现象，以便利用振动方案来调节/防止细菌附着。我们将构建和描述起谐振器作用的动态固体生物界面。这些表面将具有从微米到纳米级的特征--这种结构的表面已知会影响细菌的黏附。接下来，我们将把这些定义明确的表面与已知的机械反应启动子-报告基因融合、先进的高分辨率成像以及遗传和生化方法相结合，以调查和识别振动被感知并转化为表型或行为变化的调控途径。

Bacterial biofilms are a major cause of nosocomial infection and increase drug resistance of medical device and implant-associated infections. Hence, there is an urgent need to prevent bacterial attachment to such devices. Recent studies demonstrated that bacteria respond to mechanical stimuli, including the unique dynamic regimes induced by vibration, by modelling phenotypes such as surface adhesion, proliferation, and virulence. However, little is known about the mechanisms underpinning these responses. We aim to understand this phenomenon, so that vibration protocols can be exploited to modulate/prevent bacterial attachment. We will construct and characterise dynamic solid biointerfaces that act as resonators. These surfaces will possess features from the micrometre to the nanometre scale-such structured surfaces are known to influence bacterial adhesion. The effect of different structures and vibrational regimes on bacterial adhesion will be tested.Next, we will combine these well-defined surfaces with known mechanoresponsive promoter-reporter gene fusions, advanced high-resolution imaging, and genetic and biochemical approaches, to investigate and identify regulatory pathways by which vibration is sensed and translated to phenotypic or behavioural changes.