Novel MR Selective Imaging of Transport and Growth in Biofilms

理解流体力学和化学反应的耦合是许多化学过程的核心。该项目旨在实施和开发化学特异性，空间分辨磁共振（MR）测量技术，能够明确量化光学不透明复杂孔结构内的运输（流动和扩散）和化学成分/转化。在这种情况下，要解决的案例研究是生物膜控制，代谢和矿化，提供相对的“MR友好”（在信号弛豫时间方面）的测试系统，在此基础上开发和应用适当的MR测量方法的基础上核以外的1H。生物膜由包裹在排泄的聚合物（EPS）基质中的微生物组成，其目的是将它们锚在固体支持物表面上。它们在工程能力中广泛遇到，范围从用于污染控制的生物反应器和地下生物膜屏障（其中生物膜生长和保留是期望的）到工艺设备、水道和石油回收威尔斯附近的岩石的生物结垢（在这种情况下微生物保留是非常不期望的），以及各种医疗应用（例如导尿管）。营养物质向微生物中的运输/积累以及代谢产物远离微生物对微生物的生长至关重要，而杀生物剂向生物膜中的渗透是限制其功效的主要因素。我们控制或利用生物膜形成的能力的一个主要限制在于没有容易获得的定量描述这些复杂系统内发生的中尺度和宏观尺度的运输和化学。多核MR，凭借其非侵入性，化学选择性的性质，除了其量化运输的能力，将被开发提供这样的定量描述。MR技术的各个方面尚未得到证实。然而，这项研究的突破将广泛应用于反应，储库和组织工程以及材料加工，并提供重要的信息，可用于解决一个乏味但重要的医疗问题（导管生物污染），这是我们许多老龄化人口和易感脊柱损伤患者死亡的原因。

Understanding the coupling of hydrodynamics and chemical reaction lies at the heart of many chemical processes. This project aims to implement and develop chemically-specific, spatially-resolved magnetic resonance (MR) measurement techniques, that are able to quantify, unambiguously, transport (both flow and diffusion) and chemical composition/conversion within an optically opaque complex pore structure. The case studies to be addressed in this context are of biofilm control, metabolism and mineralization, which provide relatively 'MR friendly' (in terms of signal relaxation times) test systems upon which to develop and apply appropriate MR measurement methods based on nuclei other than 1H. Biofilms consist of micro-organisms encased in an excreted polymeric substances (EPS) matrix, the purpose of which is to anchor them onto the solid support surface. They are widely encountered in engineering capacities, ranging from bioreactors and subsurface biofilm barriers for pollution control (in which biofilm growth and retention is desirable) to bio-fouling (in which case micro-organism retention is highly undesirable) of process equipment, water courses and rock near oil-recovery wells, as well as in various medical applications (e.g. urinary catheters). Transport/accumulation of nutrients into, and metabolic products away from, the micro-organisms is crucial to their growth, while penetration of biocides into biofilms is a major factor which limits their efficacy. A major limitation in our ability to either control or exploit biofilm formation lies in there being no easily accessible quantitative description of the meso- and macro-scale transport and chemistry occurring within these complex systems. Multi-nuclear MR, by virtue of its non-invasive, chemically-selective nature, in addition to its ability to quantify transport, will be developed to provide such a quantitative description. Various aspects of the MR technique are, as yet, unproven. However the ground broken in this study will be widely applicable in reaction, reservoir and tissue engineering, and materials processing, as well as providing vital information that could be used to tackle an unglamorous but important medical problem (catheter bio-fouling) which is a contributory cause of death for many of our ageing population and susceptible spinal injury patients.