Center for Biofilm Engineering

News Update: 

August, 2008

Volume 11, Issue 8

__________________________________________

Industry Highlights

Technical Advisory Conference Highlights

For this summer's Technical Advisory Conference (TAC), we organized session topics creatively and with variety, with the hope of promoting cross-pollination of concepts, theories, and methods from one biofilm research or application area to another. We think it worked!

Industrial Associate representatives and invited guests attended the conference which was held in Bozeman, MT, July 15-17, 2008. The TAC featured sessions on coatings for biofilm inhibition, environmental biofilms, water/industrial biofilms, biofilm methods and microscopy, nitrogen compounds and their biofilm impact, and physics of biofilm control.

Read about the TAC highlights

A day before the conference, we offered a special workshop with guest instructors to share their expertise about microscopy and biofilms.

Read about the Microscopy Biofilm Workshop - July 14, 2008 at:

______

New Industrial Associate

ICU Medical, Inc. has joined the CBE as an Industrial Associate. ICU Medical was founded in 1984 by Dr. George Lopez, a practicing internist who imagined that there must be a better way of securing I.V. lines. Today, with a market cap of close to 500 million, ICU has an impressive list of landmark products. The industrial representative will be Mary Schram.  ICU Medical, Inc.

See our Industrial Associate companies

Read more about membership information
 

__________________________________________

Research Highlights

Microbe Power

Montana State University microbiologist Matthew Fields spends his days trying to understand how interactions on a microscopic scale could change how we think of energy production, climate change and even soil contamination.

Fields studies the physiology and behavior of microbes − the tiny organisms that have inhabited virtually every square inch of the earth's surface for the past 3.5 billion years.

"Microbes have global impacts," Fields said. "They can grow fast and in large numbers, and there is always power in numbers."

Fields is particularly interested in how that power can be harnessed for human use. Last year he received a five-year $1.65 million grant from the Department of Energy to study how microbes living together interact.

Read the full story

Read more about Field’s biofilm research

______

CBE Labs EPA Approved
 

Marc Rindal and Christine Edwards from the EPA visited the CBE on July 17-18, 2008. The Standardized Biofilm Methods Laboratory was recently awarded an EPA contract. The purpose of Mr. Rindal and Ms. Edwards visit was to provide guidance in administering a government contract and to ensure the laboratory’s quality assurance readiness.

_______

In the Media
 

CBE makes cover of Chemical & Engineering News

Congratulations to Susana Sánchez and Betsey Pitts, Center for Biofilm Engineering, Montana State University, whose image was featured on the cover of the June 9, 2008 issue of Chemical & Engineering News.

View the image and read more

_______

Latest CBE Publications

"Measurements of accumulation and displacement at the single cell cluster level in Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms"
Klayman BJ, Klapper I, Stewart PS, Camper AK
Environmental Microbiology 2008; 10(9):2344-2354
View abstract

"Anti-biofilm properties of chitosan-coated surfaces"
Carlson RP, Taffs R, Davison W, Stewart P
J Biomater Sci Polymer Edn 2008; 19(8):1035–1046
View abstract

"Confocal laser microscopy on biofilms: Successes and limitations"
Pitts B, Stewart P
Microscopy Today 2008; July; 18-22
View abstract

"Characterizing temporal development of biofilm porosity using artificial neural networks"
Veluchamy R, Beyenal H, Lewandowski Z
Water Science Technology 2008; 57(12):1867-1872
View abstract

“Biopolymer and water dynamics in microbial biofilm extracellular polymeric substance”
Hornemann JA, Lysova AA, Codd SL, Seymour JD, Busse SC, Stewart PS, Brown JR
Biomacromolecules epub 30-Jul-2008; (Article) DOI: 10.1021/bm800269h
View abstract

View the complete CBE publications database

_________________________________________

Outreach

Visitors

The Center hosted two visitors from Otsuka Chemical Company in Japan, on July 30, 2008. Katsura Torii and Jun Igarashi were presented overviews of the Center’s research areas and given a tour of the laboratories.

Several companies have visited this summer to learn more about the CBE’s testing labs and industrial associate program.
Jeff Walker, Angiotech Pharmaceuticals, Inc., June 13, 2008
Jennifer Medina, Medtronic, Inc., June 17-20, 2008
Marcia Ryder, Biofilm consultant, June 26, 2008
Andrew Dick and Usha Kaushik, Johnson & Johnson, July 8, 2008
Al Van Duren, Arizant Inc., July 10, 2008
Mark Wiencek and Aric Axness with Milliken, July 18, 2008

_________________________________________

Education

Thesis Alert

"Selecting plant species to optimize wastewater treatment," thesis defense by Carrie Taylor, M.S. candidate in Land Rehabilitation, Land Resources and Environmental Sciences, Montana State University, May 2008.

View thesis abstracts

_________________________________________

CBE People in Action

Betsey Pitts presented “Using fluorescence microscopy to assess microbial activity and antimicrobial performance in biofilms,” Microscopy & Microanalysis 2008 Meeting, Albuquerque, NM, August 3–7, 2008.

Taimur Khan presented the research poster “Control of biofilm accumulation on chitosan-coated antimicrobial surfaces” at the IWA Young Water Professional Conference, University of California, Berkeley, California, July 16-18,2008. Co-authors on the poster were Philip Stewart, Sara Nelson, and Anne Camper. He also participated on a discussion panel on hybrid processes for surface/seawater treatment.

Andrew Mitchell presented “Microbially enhanced carbonate mineralization and containment of CO2,” at the Goldschmidt Conference, Vancouver, Canada July 11-19, 2008. The abstract has been published in a supplemental issue of Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta. 72 (12), A636.

Rocky Ross presented “Hypertextbooks and a Hypertextbook Authoring Environment,” a presentation that showcased “Biofilms: The Hypertextbook” at the Innovation and Technology in Computer Science Education (ITiCSE), Madrid, Spain, June 28 -July 2, 2008. He was also a member of a 4-day working group that produced the report “Design Patterns for Online Learning Environments.” Subsequently he attended the Program Visualization Workshop as a program committee member and session chair, which also convened in Madrid on July 3 and 4.

Bruce McLeod presented “The use of electromagnetic fields to augment the efficacy of antibiotics used to control bacterial biofilms found in prosthetic knee implants,” at the Bioelectromagnetics Society (BEMS) meeting in San Diego, June 9, 2008. Bruce and Robin Patel (Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Rochester, MN ) opened the first session which was titled "Bench to Bedside 1: Biofilms neuroprotection."

Phil Stewart gave a keynote lecture, “Antimicrobial tolerance in staphylococcal biofilms,” to the Japanese Society for Chemotherapy, Okayama, Japan, June 7, 2008.

Phil Stewart presented “Research and industrial interaction at the Center for Biofilm Engineering,” at the 2008 New Frontiers Conference: Propelling Montana Research in Bozeman, Montana, June 2, 2008.

Christine Foreman served on the panel for the NASA ASTEP (Astrobiology Science and Technology for Exploring Planets) in Pasadena, California, June 9-13, 2008. The ASTEP program combines the science and technology communities in order to validate and improve existing technology enabling future space missions to test for life in our solar system and beyond.

Matthew Fields presented “Biodiversity and spatial concordance of an engineered subsurface environment,” at the ASM Conference, Boston, MA, May 31– June 5, 2008.

Anitha Sundararajan presented a poster “Transcriptomic characterization of a sensory-box mutant during transitions between aerobic and anoxic growth conditions,” at the ASM General Meeting, Boston, MA, May 31–June 5, 2008.

Melinda Clark presented a poster “Transcriptomic and proteomic analysis of Desulfovibrio vulgaris ATCC 29579 biofilms under conditions conducive to metal reduction,” at the ASM General Meeting, Boston, MA, May 31–June 5, 2008.

Chiachi Hwang presented a poster “Genomic and physiological characterization of Anaeromyxobacter fw109-5, a metal- and nitrate-reducing bacterium isolated from uranium-contaminated sediment,” at the ASM General Meeting, Boston, MA, May 31–June 5, 2008.

_________________________________________

Web Watch

Subscribe to BiofilmsOnline.com

Visit www.BiofilmsOnline.com for more biofilm news and information.

Subscribe to the monthly newsletter.

Sponsor BiofilmsOnline.com

_________________________________________

Newsletter Listserv

Subscribe or unsubscribe to the newsletter by following these instructions. The CBE News Update is a listserv newsletter.

View the monthly CBE News Update on our web site.

Access Newsletter Archives

__________________________________________