Descrizione del progetto
Indizi sulle interazioni microbiche nei biofilm guidano le future applicazioni industriali
I microrganismi possiedono la capacità di formare biofilm, comunità tridimensionali quali quelle che è possibile trovare sulla placca dentale. Lo scopo del progetto BEBOP, finanziato dall’UE, è comprendere i meccanismi biofisici alla base delle formazione di tali strutture in ambienti complessi, quali i mezzi porosi. Avvalendosi di una combinazione di microfluidica, esperimenti con bioreattori, fluorescenza e immagini a raggi X, i ricercatori stanno approfondendo i processi biofisici che regolano questi meccanismi. L’analisi delle interazioni tra i biofilm e il loro ambiente fornirà conoscenze fondamentali nel campo della biomeccanica e in quello dell’ecologia fisica e spianerà inoltre la strada verso nuove biotecnologie per applicazioni industriali e sociali, quali quelle di trattamento delle acque reflue e di biorisanamento dei suoli.
Obiettivo
The key ideas motivating this project are that: 1) precise control of the properties of porous systems can be obtained by exploiting bacteria and their fantastic abilities; 2) conversely, porous media (large surface to volume ratios, complex structures) could be a major part of bacterial synthetic biology, as a scaffold for growing large quantities of microorganisms in controlled bioreactors.
The main scientific obstacle to precise control of such processes is the lack of understanding of biophysical mechanisms in complex porous structures, even in the case of single-strain biofilms. The central hypothesis of this project is that a better fundamental understanding of biofilm biomechanics and physical ecology will yield a novel theoretical basis for engineering and control.
The first scientific objective is thus to gain insight into how fluid flow, transport phenomena and biofilms interact within connected multiscale heterogeneous structures - a major scientific challenge with wide-ranging implications. To this end, we will combine microfluidic and 3D printed micro-bioreactor experiments; fluorescence and X-ray imaging; high performance computing blending CFD, individual-based models and pore network approaches.
The second scientific objective is to create the primary building blocks toward a control theory of bacteria in porous media and innovative designs of microbial bioreactors. Building upon the previous objective, we first aim to extract from the complexity of biological responses the most universal engineering principles applying to such systems. We will then design a novel porous micro-bioreactor to demonstrate how the permeability and solute residence times can be controlled in a dynamic, reversible and stable way - an initial step toward controlling reaction rates.
We envision that this will unlock a new generation of biotechnologies and novel bioreactor designs enabling translation from proof-of-concept synthetic microbiology to industrial processes.
Campo scientifico
- engineering and technologyenvironmental biotechnologybioremediationbioreactors
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesmicrobiologybacteriology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencessynthetic biology
- natural sciencesbiological sciencesbiophysics
- engineering and technologyelectrical engineering, electronic engineering, information engineeringelectronic engineeringcomputer hardwaresupercomputers
Parole chiave
Programma(i)
Argomento(i)
Meccanismo di finanziamento
ERC-STG - Starting GrantIstituzione ospitante
75794 Paris
Francia