The Center for Biofilm Engineering
Battling Biofilms Brings Together Academics and
Industry at Conference
MSU News
Service, 07/25/2007
by Tracy Ellig
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Researchers, doctors and business people from across the
United States and the United Kingdom are in Bozeman July 24-26,
2007,
discussing how to battle sticky masses of bacteria known as biofilms at what may be the largest industrial conference on the
subject anywhere.
The conference is hosted by Montana State University's Center for
Biofilm Engineering, the oldest, largest and best-known biofilm
research center in the world.
Biofilms are bacteria that latch onto surfaces -- teeth, the
inside of water pipelines, heart valves, catheters, human tissues,
and countless other surfaces -- and then form complex colonies
that secrete a goo-like armor that makes them highly resistant to
antibiotics and disinfectants. Biofilms are considered a
multi-billion dollar industrial and medical problem.
"This is a unique conference, in that -- certainly in the biofilm
area -- there is nothing quite like this in the world," said
Jeremy Yarwood, senior microbiologist from the corporate research
lab of 3M, one of the nation's largest companies.
"In terms of biofilms, the center has the most well-developed
industrial program in size and in its comfort level of working
with industry," Yarwood said. "I haven't seen anything like this
anywhere else."
3M is one of the center's 28 industrial associates. Each associate
company pays an annual fee of $22,000. In return, the center
offers education, workshops, research, testing, intellectual
property development consulting and acts as a liaison with various
regulatory agencies such as the FDA and EPA. |
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Anabelle Morales, a
senior scientist with specialty chemical manufacturer Rohm and
Haas, is given a demonstration by Liz Sandvik, a master's degree
candidate in chemical and biological engineering at Montana State
University's Center for Biofilm Engineering. Morales was one of
more than 80 industrial representatives attending the center's
annual conference this week on biofilms, sticky masses of
bacterial that cause multi-billion dollar problems in industry and
health care. (Photo courtesy of Center for Biofilm Engineering.)
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The center's relationship with industry has been an integral part
of its strategy since its founding in 1990, said Phil Stewart,
center director.
Each year, the center hosts two conferences for its
industrial associates. This year's is the largest ever, with more than
80 individuals attending.
"For us, it has been a great partnership," said David Fink, director of
research and development for Covidien, one of the largest healthcare
companies in the world and a center associate since 1997. "With regards
to biofilms, we saw the center as a mechanism to tie us to cutting edge
research."
The word biofilm was coined in 1978 by Bill Costerton, former director
of MSU's Center for Biofilm Engineering. In the 29 years since, biofilms
have been blamed for causing billions of dollars of damage to U.S.
industry by fouling pipes, contaminating products and damaging
equipment.
Recently, interest in medical biofilms has exploded. The National
Institutes of Health now estimates that nearly 80 percent of all human
infections -- everything from cystic fibrosis, to dental plaque, to
chronic wounds -- are biofilm based.
Last year, the center won a $2.9 million grant from the NIH to
investigate the role biofilms play in slow-healing wounds, and medical
biofilms are a major theme at this week's conference. Slow-healing
wounds -- common among diabetics -- lead to nearly 82,000 foot and leg
amputations in the U.S. annually. Biofilms are suspected to play a role
in 250,000 medical-device infections -- such as catheters and artificial
joints -- annually as well.
"We suspected the role of infections in medical devices was not well
understood and the center was a vehicle for us to tie to research in
that area," Fink said.
"The solution to medical biofilms will be found by a consortium of
industrial, academic and regulatory bodies," Fink said. "We'll only be
successful working cooperatively, and this conference helps advance that
process."
In all the industrial and academic partnership, students have not been
ignored. During 2006-2007, the center had 47 graduate students and 33
undergraduate students from 12 different academic departments performing
research. Many of those projects were funded through dollars from
industrial partners.
"I think this conference shows that the practical side of our academic
research -- in everything from environmental cleanup to medicine -- is
gaining recognition," Stewart said. "We must be doing something right to
draw all these people."
For more information on Montana State University's Center
for Biofilm Engineering, visit:
http://www.biofilm.montana.edu/
Contact: Phil Stewart, director of MSU's Center for
Biofilm Engineering, (406) 994-1960 or e-mail
Dr. Phil Stewart.
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