In this work, microfluidic technology is used to rapidly create hundreds of thousands of monodisperse double and triple emulsion drops that serve as 3D microenvironments for the containment and growth of bacterial biofilms. The size of these drops, with diameters from tens to hundreds of micrometers, makes them amenable to rapid manipulation and analysis. This is demonstrated by using microscop...

A fluidized bed bioreactor has been used to carry out biological denitrification in the present work as it offers many advantages over other types of reactors. Plastic beads of low density (1055 kg/m3) were used as fluidizing media with Pseudomonas stuzeri, a denitrifying microorganism immobilized on them. The denitrification rate under different operating conditions was studied. The results of...

Biofilms are communities of microorganisms embedded in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) matrix. Bacteria in biofilms demonstrate distinct features from their free-living planktonic counterparts, such as different physiology and high resistance to immune system and antibiotics that render biofilm a source of chronic and persistent infections. A deeper understanding of biofilms will ultim...

Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm is commonly associated with chronic wound infection. A FDA approved wireless electroceutical dressing (WED), which in the presence of conductive wound exudate gets activated to generate electric field (0.3-0.9V), was investigated for its anti-biofilm properties. Growth of pathogenic P. aeruginosa strain PAO1 in LB media was markedly arrested in the presence of the...

Biological inhibition of air pollution has vast advantages over physicochemical methods. One of the biggest challenges faced by researchers with traditional bio-filter in controlling Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) such as Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene (BTEX) is, low degradation rate (elimination capacity) and accumulation of very high biomass. The use of metabolic uncouplers...

Biofilm microcolonies of Pseudomonas aeruginosa chronically infect the airways of patients with cystic fibrosis and fuel ongoing destructive inflammation, yet the impact of the switch from planktonic to biofilm growth on host responses is poorly understood. We report that in airway epithelial cells a threshold of p38α mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) activation was required to trigger ne...

Bacteria form communities known as biofilms, which disassemble over time. In our studies outlined here, we found that, before biofilm disassembly, Bacillus subtilis produced a factor that prevented biofilm formation and could break down existing biofilms. The factor was shown to be a mixture of D-leucine, D-methionine, D-tyrosine, and D-tryptophan that could act at nanomolar concentrations. D-a...

Chronic infections resulting from biofilm formation are difficult to eradicate with current antimicrobial agents and consequently new therapies are needed. This work demonstrates that the carbon monoxide-releasing molecule CORM-2, previously shown to kill planktonic bacteria, also attenuates surface-associated growth of the gram-negative pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa by both preventing biofil...

Bacteria residing within biofilm communities can coordinate their behavior through cell-to-cell signaling. However, it remains unclear if these signals can also influence the behavior of distant cells that are not part of the community. Using a microfluidic approach, we find that potassium ion channel-mediated electrical signaling generated by a Bacillus subtilis biofilm can attract distant cel...

Bacterial biofilm is a major factor in delayed wound healing and high levels of biofilm production have been repeatedly described in multidrug resistant organisms (MDROs). Nevertheless, a quantitative correlation between biofilm production and the profile of antimicrobial drug resistance in delayed wound healing remains to be determined. Microbial identification, antibiotic susceptibility and b...