🆕 Blog! We hear from some of our researchers about their experience of attending the #Biofilms11 conference which brought together experts in biofilms 🦠
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@dr-bilal-djeghout.bsky.social @jcihorton.bsky.social @hoyuliu.bsky.sociall
Me, standing on stage in front of a projection of a title slide from my talk titled ‘from architecture to complex infections: how multi-modal cross-scale imaging changes how we view biofilms’
A picture of the National Museum of Cardiff in the evening sun, with tree branch overhanging the top of the image.
A picture of 4 people standing in front of a mammoth skeleton with colourful lighting in the background
Had a fantastic week at #Biofilms11 in sunny Cardiff! Great to catch up and meet so many folks and see all the amazing biofilm research on show. Plus a life size 3D printed mammoth!
Thanks for a great conference @ukbiofilms.bsky.social!
Returning home from #Biofilms11 today. It's been a great week full of lovely people and chats about all things biofilm!
A big thank you to the organisers for offering me my very first conference talk, allowing me to spread the word about epsSMASH 😊🧬🦠
#MicroSky
Excellent talk by Darla Goeres at #biofilms11 in Cardiff! Come join our cost action and help improve biofilm standards!
www.cost.eu/actions/CA23...
#microsky
A woman standing in front of a presentation screen. There are light microscope images and data showing differential biofilm growth of wild-type and mutant bacteria.
It was a pleasure to collaborate with Ainelen Piazza to explore the role of the P. aeruginosa gene BatR in #biofilm development in our cystic fibrosis lung model #Biofilms11 #MicroSky
A man standing in front of a presentation, showing electron microgrpahs and data on antibiotic biofilm eradication assays.
And now @kadeayomikun.bsky.social is sharing his work exploring P. aeruginosa #biofilm structure and antibiotic tolerance in our model of endotracheal tube colonisation #Biofilms11 #MicroSky
👏 Well done to PhD student Daniel Smaje! Excellent flash talk! Come visit his poster during the next #biofilms11 break!
#microsky
@ukbiofilms.bsky.social @microbiologysociety.org @livunihls.bsky.social
@livunisps.bsky.social
Now at #Biofilms11, @microberamon.bsky.social is introducing his work on exploring polymicrobial #biofilm in 3D urothelial organoids #MicroSky
Dim conference room, big screen, illegible writing, man presenting
Then @ronanmccarthy.bsky.social rattles through what feels like a decade's work on hospital microplastics in 15min🫣🦠 #biofilms11 @microbiologysociety.org @ukbiofilms.bsky.social - lots of evidence not only do bacteria live on hospital plastics - we may be unwittingly FEEDING them. Even common PA!!
Next, sobering insights from Jess Song's work on environmental microplastics pollution at bam.de - although microplastic-associated #biofilms11 typically mirror their local, habitat, they also do a frighteningly good job of accumulating other nasties (hydrocarbons, endocrine disruptors..) we'd avoid
A man in front of a big screen with illegible text, i a dimly lit conference room
Another @ukbiofilms.bsky.social @microbiologysociety.org #biofilms11 day, another great programme of science! Firstly hearing about leaf-microbiota interaction in keynote from Gabriel Castrillo and co www.gabrielcastrillo.com
Many astonishing messages here:
* Between-leaf diversity is massive
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Now at #Biofilms11, @andersohd.bsky.social is introducing epssmash.secondarymetabolites.org - a tool for mining microbial genomes for exopolysaccharide biosynthetic gene clusters. Looks really valuable for finding new & different #biofilm producers #MicroSky
Electron microscopy images showing pitting and degradation of a plastic bead by P. aeruginosa.
How did I miss this paper? @ronanmccarthy.bsky.social lab screened nosocomial bugs for plastic-degrading enzymes, reasoning that they've been selected for this ability. They found a P. aeruginosa enzyme that efficiently degrades plastic #Biofilms11 #MicroSky (Image: www.cell.com/cell-reports...
👏Well done to PhD student Abbie Johnson for her flash presentation at #biofilms11!
There's still time to check out her poster #116 in the last poster session!
@ukbiofilms.bsky.social @microbiologysociety.org
@livunisps.bsky.social
#microsky
Eleftheria Trampari @quadraminstitute.bsky.social gives a tantalising flash talk on plant-biofilm contamination @ukbiofilms.bsky.social @microbiologysociety.org #biofilms11 - 89% of Salmonella spp contamination arises from plants, not poultry😮🫣
Matt Fields of CBE at Montana State U. showcases some truly fantastic results from their unique synthetic biofilm-printing system at @microbiologysociety.org @ukbiofilms.bsky.social #biofilms11
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Agneta Richter-Dahlfors from @ki.se gives a masterclass on use of optotracers to understand ECM conformation at @ukbiofilms.bsky.social @microbiologysociety.org #biofilms11
Next at #Biofilms11: Brogan Richards is showing that efflux pump inhibitors are less effective at resensitising P. aeruginosa to antibiotics when P. aeru is part of a polymicrobial #biofilm. Read about the polymicrobial biofilm model here: app.jove.com/t/67213/deve... #MicroSky
An electron micrograph showing a surface view of a biofilm. It is dry and quite flat, with a cracked surface like dried mud.
Some biofilms are dry, not hydrated: Gordon Ramage & collaborators used repeated cycles of wetting with media, then drying, to culture dry surface #biofilm of Candida auris to explore how they persist and tolerate antimicrobials #Biofilms11 #MicroSky (Image: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...)
For those at this year's @ukbiofilms.bsky.social #Biofilms11 conference in Cardiff, Wales head over to P047 to check out 3rd-year NRPDTP PhD student @marniebarham.bsky.social 's poster presentation on 'Investigating biofilms of Desulfovibrio desulfuricans' 📊
#PhD #Science #microbiology #biofilms
Close up of a scientific poster with a big blue arrow labelled "biological relevance", highlighting a key element of the results
I love this big biological relevance arrow @konstantinbe.bsky.social, can I borrow that idea for my next poster!! #Biofilms11
I did a thing! I presented my PhD work at #Biofilms11 and it was amazing to see the level of support I have received before and after from attendees! #PhD #MicroSky
I can now go and breathe 😌
Images of mixed macrocolonies of C. albicans and S. aureus, with fluorescent tags used to show spatial structure of the communities. The two species are not fully mixed.
Now at #Biofilms11, @liam-rooney.bsky.social is showing us how mesolens imaging (large field of view + high resolution) reveals macrocolony biofilm structure, and can be combined with other sensing techniques to track metabolites like O2 #MicroSky (Image: www.spiedigitallibrary.org/conference-p...)
Rupika standing in front of a projector screen, which shows some microscopy images of biofilms in ex vivo pig skin wounds.
Next at #Biofilms11: Rupika @microbescience.bsky.social is showing her PhD work on metal compounds as candidate antibiofilm agents for functionalised paints and dermal regeneration templates. This has involved tweaking test standards to better mimic hospital and host environments #MicroSky
A cartoon showing logic gates of high/low temperature and high/low pH triggering release of an active molecules to target either biofilm or planktonic bacteria.
A logic gate to release antimicrobials from deep within silicone medical devices in response to temperature and pH indicators of microbial presence - super cool talk from Yuri Diaz Fernnandez from @livuniopenhub.bsky.social at #Biofilms11 #MicroSky (Image: pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1...)
Looking forward to Day 2 of #Biofilms11 ... also a bit nervous about my PhD talk! Did a little run through! #PhD
Come and check out the excellent posters from our group members Dan Smaje, Abbie Johnson and @ericasl.bsky.social at #Biofilms11!
#microsky
@livunisps.bsky.social @livunihls.bsky.social
@ukbiofilms.bsky.social
@microbiologysociety.org
Confocal microscopy of thin vertical sections of biofilms shows gld D expression limited to the top few micrometres, and lldP expression peaking just below.
Next: @laahrs.bsky.social shows his lab's work on spatial organisation of metabolic gene expression in P. aeruginosa macrocolonies. More beautiful images, showing division of metabolic pathways between cells in different biofilm layers #Biofilms11 #MicroSky (Image: journals.asm.org/doi/10.1128/...)
Microscopy images using different coloured labels to show a diversity of B-DNA, Z-DNA and G4 complexes in a bacterial biofilm.
There are many types of eDNA in #biofilm matrices - including Z-DNA & G4 complexes that are key for mechanical stability, don't get degraded by DNaseI and can't be seen with typical DNA dyes. Absolutely storming talk from Rikke Meyer at #Biofilms11 #MIcroSky (Image: academic.oup.com/nar/article/...)
