Center for Biofilm Engineering

News Update: 

December, 2007

Volume 10, Issue 11-12

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Research Highlights

Growth & Activity: 2007 Annual Report

Twining through this year’s annual report of the Center for Biofilm Engineering is a timeline that chronicles the history of the CBE. Follow this path and you will see some of the many people—faculty and staff, students, research collaborators from around the world, and industrial representatives—who have contributed to the building of our center and the biofilm field. I think you will also discover a bit of whimsy that hints at the fun that has gone into making the CBE the special place it is today. Enjoy the read! Phil Stewart, Director

Read the 2007 Annual Report

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New Industrial Associate Members

Glanbia Nutritionals has joined as a new industrial member. Glanbia Nutritionals focuses on the expert delivery of science-based nutritional solutions. With production facilities located in Idaho, New Mexico and Ireland, Glanbia delivers a wide range of specialty whey protein isolates, whey protein concentrates, whey fractions, milk proteins, dairy calcium and other nutritional ingredients. The company representative will be Loren Ward. Read more about Glanbia at the company's homepage: http://www.glanbianutritionals.com

QuoNova has also joined as a small business Industrial Associate member. Based in Melbourne, Florida, the company was established in December 2006 with the aim of developing a proprietary quorum sensing blocker (QSB) technology for commercialization. In August 2007 QuoNova Europe GmbH was established in Munich to support the company's global efforts in exploitation of the technology platform, with special focus on human healthcare applications. The designated rep will be Duane Feldman. For further information see QuoNova’s homepage at: http://www.quonova.com

View our Industrial Associate member companies

Read more about membership information

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DOE Awards Multi-Institutional Collaboration

In recognition of the successfully amplified coalition of common experimental and computational infrastructures, the U.S. Department of Energy granted the Virtual Institute for Microbial Stress and Survival: Environmental Stress Pathway Project (VIMSS:ESPP2) project team a five-year renewal which reemphasizes both high-throughput genetics and more environmental studies. Three national laboratories join with seven affiliated universities to comprise the new ESPP2. Under the leadership of Adam P. Arkin (UC-Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory) and Terry C. Hazen (LBNL), co-investigators are all veterans of the original collaboration: Jay Keasling (UC, LBNL), Aindrila Mukhopadhyay (LBNL), Matthew Fields (Montana State University and CBE), Kelly Bender (University of Illinois at Chicago), Eric Alm (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), Judy Wall (University of Missouri-Columbia), David Stahl (University of Washington), Jizhong Zhou (Oklahoma University), Martin Keller (Oak Ridge National Laboratory) and Anup Singh (Sandia National Laboratories).

The project strives to characterize the molecular basis for stress responses in microbial community structure, function, and stability in laboratory- and field-scale experiments. The anticipated award to Montana State University is $1.65 million dollars over five years, a very significant grant for co-PI Matthew Fields and the Center for Biofilm Engineering.

Matthew and his team will investigate the molecular and physiological basis for interactions between sulfate-, iron-, and carbon dioxide-reducing populations in biofilms as well as characterize microbial communities from chromium and uranium contaminated sites in order to better understand the roles in heavy metal remediation.

Microbial communities play key roles in some of the Department of Energy’s main concerns in climate change, energy, and environmental remediation. The multi-institutional collaboration is a large-scale systems biology effort.

Read more about VIMSS: ESPP2 at: http://vimss.lbl.gov/

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Microbial Fuel Cells

Zbigniew Lewandowski’s group successfully completed a five-month deployment of large-scale microbial fuel cells. Thanks to the generous support from the US Office of Naval Research, and help from the Ship Operations at the Hatfield Marine Science Center in Newport, Oregon, large scale microbial fuel cells were deployed and tested off the Oregon coast. The probe consisted of the fuel cells and a telemetry system, which wirelessly transmitted the data from the buoy to a remote receiver. The fuel cell will be deployed again in the spring of 2008.

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New Faculty

Abigail Richards joined the chemical and biological engineering department of Montana State University's College of Engineering as an assistant professor. Richards' research interests include biofilm growth in extreme environments and exploring ways that microbes might be used to clean soils that have been contaminated by heavy metals or radionuclides. Read more at: http://www.montana.edu/cpa/news/nwview.php?article=5277

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Latest CBE Publications

 “A multidimensional multispecies continuum model for heterogeneous biofilm development”
Alpkvist, E. and I. Klapper
Bull Math Biol, 69 (2): 765-789 (2007)
Read abstract

“Biofilm formation in Desulfovibrio vulgaris Hildenborough is dependent upon protein filaments”
Clark, M.E., R.E. Edelmann, M.L. Duley, J.D. Wall, and M.W. Fields
Environ Microbiol, 9 (11): 2844-2854 (2007)
Read abstract

View the complete publications database

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In the Media

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New Employee

Brad Ramsay is a research associate working on the new DOE grant which strives to characterize the molecular basis for stress responses in microbial community structure, function, and stability in laboratory- and field-scale experiments. Brad earned his BS degree in chemistry and MS degree in biochemistry from Montana State University. Read more about the grant above.

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Farewells

We give our best wishes and “happy trails” to three people who have participated at the CBE as both students and research staff.

Wesley Bauman has accepted a position as an Engineering Consultant with Oasis Environmental, Inc., a consulting and engineering firm based in Anchorage, AK, that specializes in site remediation, water resources, ecological sciences, and EHS management. He will begin work in their Bigfork, Montana office this December. In 2003, Wes began working in the CBE as an undergraduate student and this year he completed a masters degree in environmental engineering before working as a research associate in the Medical Biofilms Laboratory. "It has been special for me to be a part of the CBE for more than five years now; it's the people that make it such a great place and I will always be grateful to have had the chance to learn from the best." - Wes Bauman, November 2007

Adrienne (Adie) Phillips has accepted a position with Environ Corp. in Newark, NJ, where she will be working as a Senior Associate Environmental Engineer. Environ Corp. has a large variety of engineering and scientific business services and offices all over the world. Adie completed a masters degree in chemical engineering in 2004 and began working with Al Cunningham and Robin Gerlach's research group. She is excited about her new opportunities and we wish her the best!

Audrey Corbin will be returning to Nantes, France at the end of the month. Audrey has been working in Phil Stewart’s Biofilm Control laboratory for the past two years, first as a student intern from INSA (Institut National des Sciences Appliquées) and for the past year as a research associate. Audrey presented some of her work with unstable gfp at the TAC meeting this past July. Most recently, she and Phil have been working on a project with Colgate-Palmolive. Audrey is an inspiring colleague and friend and has been a tireless contributor to Center workshops and outreach efforts during her time here. She will be missed very much! Audrey hopes to find an equally rewarding industrial position in Europe.

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Outreach

Visitors

Procter & Gamble recently renewed their Industrial Associate membership, giving us the opportunity for an exchange of visits. In September Alex Blanchard invited Betsey Pitts to visit Procter and Gamble in the United Kingdom, and she gave a presentation on microscopy of biofilms to Procter & Gamble Company worldwide via web conferencing while she was there. Kim Harris, a researcher in Alex's group at Procter & Gamble in Egham, UK, has since come to the CBE to work with Betsey on microscopy, as well as to talk with other CBE researchers about biofilm growth and imaging techniques.

Dr. Virginia Anderson of Towson State University, a collaborator on the CBE's NSF-sponsored Biofilms: The Hypertextbook project (grant numbers 0089397 and 0618744), visited the CBE during the first week of November. Dr. Anderson, whose specialty is educational assessment and evaluation, attended one session of a class that has been using the hypertextbook prototype and worked with local grant team members Rocky Ross, Al Cunningham, and Diane Williams to produce materials and instruments for ongoing teaching and learning evaluation of the hypertextbook.

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Education

Thesis Alert

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CBE People in Action

Andreas Nocker presented “Live-dead distinction in molecular diagnostics,” at QIAGEN AG in Hilden, Germany, December 4, 2007.

Darla Goeres presented “Understanding the importance of biofilm in treated recreational water venues” at the Texas Environmental Health Association Annual Educational Conference in Austin, TX, October 18, 2007.

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Web Watch

BiofilmsOnline.com

Visit www.BiofilmsOnline.com for more biofilm news and information.

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