Students and faculty attended the Binghamton University Center for Biofilm Research’s workshop on Friday afternoon in the Innovative Technologies Complex to hear keynote speaker Paul Stoodley explain more about the world of biofilms.
Stoodley, a professor from Ohio State University (OSU) who works in the department of microbial infection and immunity, said that biofilms are thin, often slimy layers of bacteria that stick to a variety of surfaces. Biofilms are part of every human’s everyday experience — they are the plaque that forms on teeth and causes tooth decay and the slippery coating on rocks by streams or rivers.
Stoodley began researching biofilms at Montana State University in 1987, and now works as a professor at OSU and a consultant for Philips Oral Healthcare. He has published 239 papers and is one of the most highly cited biofilm researchers, with more than 18,000 academic citations.
Biofilms have a number of characteristics, one of which is the ability to stick stubbornly to surfaces. Since they are bacteria, they often cause infections, especially when they form on skin. A problem with biofilms is that experts have yet to discover a way to remove biofilms from surfaces permanently.
“Biofilms are known to cause many chronic infections, particularly of foreign bodies,” Stoodley said. “That’s where they’ve sort of been, sort of known, but also epithelial surfaces and then host surfaces. One of the issues in medicine or actually industry with biofilms is that when bacteria form biofilms, regardless of their sensitivity to antibiotics or antimicrobials, when they’re biofilms, they become almost inherently tolerant of antibiotics and antimicrobials.”
One way that Stoodley and his team are looking to remove biofilms is through hydrodynamics — using moving water as a means to get rid of biofilms. They looked at the ways biofilms reacted to different flows at the cellular level. More recently, Philips, the electric appliance brand, came up with a product that sprays water between teeth in order to remove dental plaque, a kind of biofilm. Stoodley was interested in how high-velocity water sprays may affect a layer of biofilm situated between teeth.
He sprayed water at a layer of biofilm placed in between two glass slides, only to have it separate and then come back together a little — he referred to this phenomenon as elasticity recoil.
Stoodley is also working on removing biofilms off the surface of ships, where they cause drag, forcing ships to slow down. Research in biofilms is a relatively new area and there is much to be discovered about them, such as a method for their effective and permanent removal.
Julie Raab, a junior majoring in biochemistry, said she was fascinated with the talk, although she admitted that there were moments when she felt lost.
“I thought it was quite interesting,” said Raab. “A little over my head at times, but very interesting.”
Timothy Michaels, a first-year graduate student studying biofilms, said that the talk addressed aspects of biofilms that he hadn’t thought of before.
“I thought it was really interesting,” Michaels said. “He brought up some stuff that I’ve never really, you know, considered — with the fluid dynamics and such. It was just fascinating overall.”