Understanding Material Interactions and Effects on Polymicrobial Communities at Surfaces

The multi-disciplinary project will not only assess the prevention of biofilm formation using in vitro models and environmentally sourced "real-life" biofilms, but also what impact the actives have on the community structure (metataxonomic analysis), gene expression (transcriptomic analysis) and resulting metabolites (e.g. those linked to odour via electronic-nose techniques and / or virulence). Imaging and high throughput techniques will also be employed.

The main objectives of this project are to:
1. Generate fundamental insights on microbial interactions (bacteria and fungi) at the surface/soil - cell level and cell-cell level
2. Develop a greater mechanistic understanding of how individual antimicrobial actives work on single species of microbes; bioavailabilty and penetration into the biofilm
3. Utilise high throughput capabilities to identify synergistic combinations that deliver a step change in augmented antimicrobial performance against complex microbial communities
4. Create fundamental, mechanistic understanding of how multiple actives and materials can influence complex microbial communities at surfaces during initial biofilm formation and subsequent development

We would anticipate insights would be transferable to other surfaces, relevant for Unilever (BPC; potentially self preserving products) and non-Unilever applications (e.g. medical devices; industrial cleaning)