Tunable mesoscopic numerical model for bacterial biofilms

J. Martin-Roca; B. Wu-Zhang; J. Oller; J. Ramirez; C. Valeriani

Tunable mesoscopic numerical model for bacterial biofilms

Computational Physics 2026-07-26 v1 Soft Condensed Matter

Authors: J. Martin-Roca , B. Wu-Zhang , J. Oller , J. Ramirez , C. Valeriani

Abstract

We present a tunable mesoscale model to provide a basis for future rheological calculations of of bacterial biofilms, explicitly incorporating reversible crosslinking within the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) matrix. Using a Dissipative Particle Dynamics framework combined with a Gillespie-inspired algorithm, bonds between polymers and bacteria dynamically form and break, capturing the intrinsically evolving nature of the network. We show that biofilm structure is governed by a competition between polymer-polymer and polymer-bacteria crosslinks, controlled by binding energy, linker availability, and bond stiffness and provide a minimal model that helps to understand the competition between both species.

Cite

@article{arxiv.2607.23677,
  title  = {Tunable mesoscopic numerical model for bacterial biofilms},
  author = {J. Martin-Roca and B. Wu-Zhang and J. Oller and J. Ramirez and C. Valeriani},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.23677},
  year   = {2026}
}