School of Electronic, Electrical and Systems Engineering

This project aims at understanding multi-species biofilms, synergistic and antagonistic effects in them, and biofilm adaptation to different external stimuli. The project comprises experimental and computational studies looking into biofilm growth and biofilm resistance to gas plasmas, a promising new sterilization technology. The bactericidal properties of plasmas are now well established but most studies have focused on optimizing plasma treatments for killing single organisms grown in ideal laboratory conditions. This projects aims at extending the existing knowledge by assessing the bactericidal properties of plasmas against multi-species biofilms, a more realistic scenario. Since different organisms are known to have different resistance to plasma treatments, the biofilm composition is expected to change during the exposure to plasma. Unexplored situations will arise when the intensity of the treatment is sublethal for some of the species. Would killing some species provide a better environment for more dangerous species to grow? How can we prevent this from happening?

Generic cell kinetics:

• Mathematical modelling of Biofilm Growth
  Y.P. Lo, J. Ward, F. Iza, R. Seager, M.G. Kong
  7th Industrial Simulation Conference, Loughborough, UK (2009)
  


• Two-Dimensional Individual-Based Model of Biofilm Growth with Continuum EPS Matrix
  Y.P. Lo, J. Ward, R. Seager, F. Iza, M.G. Kong
  SIAM Conference on the Life Sciences (LS10), Pittsburgh, PA, USA (2010)