Technical Advisory Conference

Synthesizing information about biofilms and presenting the industrial relevance of biofilm research was again the focus of this meeting, with outside experts invited to present research topic areas of interest to the Center and its Industrial Associate members.

This winter's meeting broke the record for winter TAC attendance, with 48 attendees from 29 businesses, 4 colleges/universities, and 3 government agencies/entities. Fifteen Industrial Associate companies and fourteen visiting companies were represented.

We hope the following pictures will bring back memories to those who were there (maybe you'll see a picture of yourself) and compel others to come to the next conference!

Session Topics

Biofilm Control

Biofilm Structure

Phage Interactions with Biofilm

Medical Biofilms

The Biofilm Matrix

See Agenda (pdf)

Next Conference

Summer Conference:
      June 20-22, 2006

Summer Workshop:
      June 19, 2006

Invited Speakers

Each invited speaker came to share special expertise and to present some thought-provoking research. If you attended the conference, you should have no problem linking the following "key words" to the speaker:  USC football, sociomicrobiology, snotty biofilms, phage display technology, superfund site, immune evasion.

A Survey of  What Goes On at a CBE Technical Advisory Conference

So what really went on at this conference?  Whether we were in session or out of session, our intent was to give you a "window of the world of biofilms."  We discussed the long and short of it, we clearly demonstrated that the interest and enthusiasm in biofilm stretches from sea to sea and that we've got images to "dye for"!   In the picture at right, Phil Stewart pulled out his laptop during a break to discuss a project with Colgate-Palmolive representatives Davide Miksa (left, New York), Ammanuel Mehreteab (New Jersey), and Shoji Takenaka (far right, Niigata University Graduate School of Medical and Dental Sciences).
Mike Sutton, CBE undergraduate in mechanical engineering,  demonstrated the viscoelastic properties of biofilm using silly putty. We liked it, Mike!
These next two photos depict the biofilm interest from "sea to shining sea".   Audry Corbin (far left), visiting student from France, visits with new Industrial Associate members from American Air Liquide, James Yuan (Illinois), Jean-Francois Cazaubon (France), John Novak (Illinois).
Michael Otto (left, Rocky Mountain Labs, Montana) and Jeyong Yoon (right, Seoul National University, Korea) visit with Bill Costerton (sitting, University of Southern California).     We never stopped talking about biofilms!
An Experiment: The Biofilm Methods Workshop   This wasn't our usual workshop and that is what made it so fun and interesting for both the participants and CBE staff.  A special thanks goes to Diane Gray who donated Molecular Probes™ stains to experiment with during this workshop.  Read more...