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Innovations
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Studying Slime Carol Potera Abstract
Biofilms are complex colonies composed of billions of bacteria that pool their resources to resist being killed by antimicrobial agents. The best known and most studied biofilm is dental plaque, which secretes acids that destroy teeth and gums. Biofilms also contaminate medical devices and turn up in industrial settings, corroding everything from water pipes to computer chips. A new breakthrough at the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State University at Bozeman identified how bacteria communicate with each other while building a biofilm. Because biofilm infections are tenacious, other research is looking at preventing biofilms from taking hold. Developments include special catheters coated with the antibiotics rifampin and minocycline, which have been shown to host fewer biofilm colonies, an electric-based method that shocks biofilms, allowing antibiotics to penetrate their tough defenses and kill them, and lactobacillus suppositories, which restore and maintain healthy biofilm populations in women's urinary tracts.
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