Related papers: Biofilms as poroelastic materials
Bacteria generally live in complicated structures called biofilms, consisting of communicating bacterial colonies and extracellular polymeric substance (EPS). Since biofilms are related to detrimental effects such as infection or antibiotic…
The focus of this paper is the numerical solution of a pore-scale model for the growth of a permeable biofilm. The model includes water flux inside the biofilm, different biofilm components, and shear stress on the biofilm-water interface.…
Biofilms in porous media critically influence hydraulic properties in environmental and engineered systems. However, a mechanistic understanding of how microbial life controls permeability remains elusive. By combining microfluidics,…
Many bacterial species readily develop biofilms that act as a protective matrix against external challenge, e.g. from antimicrobial treatment. Therefore, biofilms are often responsible for persistent and recurring infections. Established…
The present paper proposes a novel method of quantification of the variation in biofilm architecture, in correlation with the alteration of growth conditions that include, variations of substrate and conditioning layer. The polymeric…
We perform mathematical anaysis of the biofilm development process. A model describing biomass growth is proposed: It arises from coupling three parabolic nonlinear equations: a biomass equation with degenerate and singular diffusion, a…
It is frequent for active or living entities to find themselves embedded in a surrounding medium. Resulting composite systems are usually classified as either active fluids or active solids. Yet, in reality, particularly in the biological…
Bacterial biofilms cost an enormous amount of resources in the health, medical, and industrial sectors. To understand early biofilm formation, beginning from planktonic states of active bacterial suspensions (such as Escherichia coli) to…
Many organisms form colonies for a transient period of time to withstand environmental pressure. Bacterial biofilms are a prototypical example of such behavior. Despite significant interest across disciplines, physical mechanisms governing…
Bacteria invade surfaces by forming dense colonies encased in a polymer matrix. Successful settlement of founder bacteria, early microcolony development and later macroscopic spreading of these biofilms on surfaces rely on complex physical…
Biofilms are communities of microorganisms that grow on virtually all surfaces with sufficient nutrients including aquatic and industrial water systems and medical devices. Biofilms are complex, structured communities where the interplay of…
We review continuum elastic models for the transmission of both external forces and internal active cellular forces in biopolymer gels, and relate them to recent experiments. Rather than being exhaustive, we focus on continuum elastic…
We derive a physiologically structured multiscale model for biofilm development. The model has components on two spatial scales, which induce different time scales into the problem. The macroscopic behavior of the system is modeled using…
We present a comprehensive theoretical and computational model that explores the behavior of a thin hydrated film bonded to a non-hydrated / impermeable soft substrate in the context of surface and bulk elasticity coupled with surface…
The cells and tissues that make up our body juggle contradictory mechanical demands. It is crucial for their survival to be able to withstand large mechanical loads, but it is equally crucial for them to produce forces and actively change…
Bacterial biofilms are among the oldest and most prevalent multicellular life forms on Earth and are increasingly relevant in research areas related to industrial fouling, medicine and biotechnology. The main hurdles to obtaining definitive…
Bacterial growth and division generally occur by the process known as binary fission, in which the cells grow polarly until they divide into two daughter cells. Although this process is affected by factors that introduce stochastic…
In this paper, we obtain analytical results for shear stress distributions inside an elastic body placed in a low Reynolds number transport. The problem definition is inspired by a recent experimental study (Valiei et al., Lab Chip, 2012,…
Several bacteria and bacteria strands form biofilms in different environmental conditions, e.g. pH, temperature, nutrients, etc. Biofilm growth, therefore, is an extremely robust process. Because of this, while biofilm growth is a complex…
We demonstrate a novel pattern that results in bacterial biofilms as a result of the competition between hydrodynamic forces and adhesion forces. After the passage of an air plug, the break up of the residual thin liquid film scrapes and…