| The CBE, in partnership with the Biosignal Group at the University of
New South Wales and the Biofilm Group at the Technical University of
Denmark, is teaching biofilm workshops around the world. These
workshops were made possible by an NSF Partnerships in Education and Research
(PER) grant awarded to the CBE – International Research and Education Program in Biofilm Control Using Furanones and Acyl Donors (426207).
The grant has also allowed the CBE to extend the contacts it uses to recruit students and
collaborators, and opened up opportunities to apply its new technologies for biofilm control in many countries around the world. These new technologies are based on molecular signals that bacteria in biofilms use to communicate with each other; in effect, they
send “false messages” that can inhibit bacterial growth, delay or prevent biofilm formation, detach fully formed biofilms from critical surfaces, or control such deleterious bacterial activities as toxin production and chronic infection.
The CBE workshop team (whose origins lie in this PER program) has conducted a Medical Biofilms workshop in Tokyo, a Chronic Infections workshop in Rome, a Subsurface Biofilm workshop in Frankfurt, and a Molecular Tools in Biofilms workshop in Concepcion (Chile) – which included students from Cuba, Columbia, and Uruguay.
A total of 125 students have taken part in the intensive, laboratory-based parts of these workshops, and a further 220 students and scientists and engineers have attended their “lecture” components. Now that the Education and Centers Division has initiated the program of overseas workshops, more funding has been found from other sources to support this very exciting and valuable outreach educational activity.
PER Workshop Agenda
Biofilm Workshop (Copenhagen, Denmark and Sydney, Australia)
Other Workshops (referred to in the text)
 Medical Biofilms (Tokyo, Japan)
Chronic Infections (Rome, Italy)
Subsurface Biofilm, (Frankfurt, Germany)
Molecular Tools in Biofilms (Concepcion, Chile)
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