The Meyer Lab at the University of Rochester is able to synthetically engineer and study biofilms made of E. coli through single nozzle printing of bio-ink onto an LB-agar plate. The University of Rochester has a photo.
Anne S. Meyer, an associate professor of biology at the University of Rochester, and her colleagues at the University of Technology in the Netherlands developed a 3D printing technique to engineer and study biofilms, three-dimensional communities of microorganisms, that adhere to surfaces. The research gives important information for creating synthetic materials and fighting the effects of biofilms.
Films can cause infections and be resistant to many drugs, but they can also be beneficial to humans. Toxic chemicals and environmental pollutants can be degraded by the use of biofilms.
Meyer and her colleagues show in their latest research that engineered biofilms can behave like natural ones. The researchers were able to use a 3D printing technique to engineer and study E coli. The technique will allow researchers to study the properties of biofilms so they can combat their harmful effects.
Meyer says that the paper shows that the engineered biofilms can behave like native biofilms in many ways, making them good model systems for anti-biofilm drug development.
A graduate student at the University of Rochester designed a 3D bioprinter that can create biofilms. Credit: University of Rochester.
Meyer's lab has been researching synthetic materials that mimic nature. The materials can be used in a variety of sectors. The Meyer group has usedbacteria to develop artificial nacre and Graphene, as well as other 3D printing techniques, including a novel bioprinting technique to print algae into living, photosynthetic materials.
The Emergent Biological Endurance Depends on Extracellular Matrix Composition of Three-Dimensionally Printed Escherichia coli Biofilms is a paper by Srikkanth Balasubramanian. The book is titled "acssynbio.1c00290."
The journal contains information about synthetic biology.
The researchers developed a novel 3D printing technique to engineer biofilms.
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