Mathematical Sciences Department Applied Math Seminar: Elizabeth Stewart, WPI

Title: Coupling experiments with mathematical tools to establish and exploit the biophysical properties of bacterial biofilms

Abstract: Bacterial biofilms are structured communities of cells encapsulated in matrix materials that include polysaccharides, proteins, and DNA. Biofilms are ubiquitous in human and animal health, industrial settings, and natural environments. Clinically, biofilms are estimated to be responsible for 65-80% of human infections annually. In my work, bacterial biofilms are studied as a biological soft matter system where the cells are analogous to colloidal particles and the matrix materials are analogous to viscoelastic hydrogels. This perspective allows for relationships between the biophysical properties of biofilms and their functions to be revealed. In this seminar, I use a biocolloidal lens to establish the colloidal microstructure of staphylococcal biofilms. I discuss how our experimental work has been used to parameterize mathematical models of biofilm fracture in fluid flow. I demonstrate how bacterial cells, biofilm matrix materials, and their microenvironments interact to generate biofilm morphology and mechanics, and control dispersion of bacteria from biofilms. I emphasize how we have utilized mathematical tools from statistics and machine learning to advance our understanding of bacterial biofilms. Additionally, I highlight recent work to engineer a biofilm infection-on-a-chip to study biofilm development at the vascular interface. Findings from this work have implications in the development of antibiofilm therapeutics and novel biofilm control strategies.