How does infection site affect the structure and biology of bacterial biofilms?

"The formation of multicellular biofilms is key to the progression of many bacterial infections. Biofilms are slime-encased communities of bacteria. They cause persistent, antibiotic-resistant infections in burn wounds, in diabetic ulcers, around the endotracheal tubes used to connect hospital patients to a ventilator, and in the lungs of people with the genetic condition cystic fibrosis.

While the environments found in these infection sites differ, some species of bacteria are pathogens in more than one. In this project, I will explore whether biofilms formed by the same pathogens have different structures and biology, depending on the environment they colonise. I will do this using tailored laboratory models that mimic the environment bacteria encounter in these different infection sites. I will also use a new way of imaging biofilms: this relies on mass spectrometry to take a high-resolution picture of the spatial location of different molecules in the biofilms.

The slime matrix around the bacteria can stop antibiotics and the patient's immune system from reaching bacteria to kill them. Further, growing as a biofilm triggers changes in bacterial biology that make them more tolerant to any antibiotics that do reach them. I will explore whether the molecules that bacteria use to build the slime matrix are the same when they infect different environments, and determine whether bacteria use the same or different mechanisms to avoid antibiotic killing and evade the host immune system in different infection sites. This will help us to determine whether a given bacterial pathogen might require different treatment strategies depending on the infection site. This will help scientists to find new, more targeted ways of killing bacterial biofilms."