Seminars

PRESENTER INFORMATION

ABSTRACT: 

Biofilms are communities of interacting microbes that are bound together by a matrix of polymers and proteins.  Bacterial biofilms are found in almost every setting in which bacteria live, including infections in human and animal bodies.  Biofilm infections are a very costly and unsolved problem in medical care because biofilms have high tolerance for antibiotics and evade the immune system, and therefore biofilms are the most common cause of chronic bacterial infections.  We have recently shown that collagen, which is the most-common protein made by vertebrates, but is NOT made by bacteria, can incorporate into biofilms.  The incorporation of collagen changes physical properties of biofilms (including transport, viscoelasticity, and microstructure) and also helps protect biofilm bacteria from phagocytosis by immune cells.  These effects are reversed when biofilms are incubated with collagenase before being exposed to immune cells.  This is true for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus, and Burkholderia pseudomallei, which are three very different and important biofilm-forming human pathogens.  We are now working to elucidate the causative links between collagen incorporation and protection from immune clearance, with the goal of identifying specific physical characteristics that can be targeted to treat biofilm infections.