Biofilm represents the predominant mode of growth of microorganisms in natural, engineered and medical habitats. Microbial biofilms can be either beneficial or detrimental in different settings. While an enhanced understanding of the fundamentals of biofilm biology is required to fully control detrimental biofilms and to harness the power of beneficial biofilms, progress in biofilm research in recent years has enabled designing and improving biofilm bioprocesses for a desirable performance in various environmental applications. In this presentation, our recent work on biofilm biology-informed biofilm engineering enabled by multidisciplinary approaches will be discussed. In the first example, bis-(3'-5')-cyclic dimeric guanosine monophosphate (c-di-GMP), the second messenger used in signal transduction in a wide variety of bacteria, was used in an engineered gene circuit to modulate biofilm dynamics in a controllable manner. In the second example, light-controllable, engineered biofilms exhibiting quorum quenching activity were developed and demonstrated to be effective in mitigating biofouling on forward osmosis membranes.

Biofilm biology-informed biofilm engineering for environmental biotechnology

256th National Meeting (2018)

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