Center for Biofilm Engineering

News Update: 

January, 2010

Volume 13, Issue 1

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Dear Readers,
Sadly, on Tuesday 6th of January 2010, Professor Kevin Marshall, internationally recognized and well-loved former Head of the School of Microbiology and Immunology at the University of New South Wales, passed away.

In memory of Kevin, former CBEer Paul Stoodley (now at Southampton University) wrote:
"I met Kevin a few times at the Center for Biofilm Engineering (Institute for Process Analysis back then) in Bozeman, MT when I first started in the biofilm world. Bill Characklis (another great early contributor to the field who unfortunately is no longer with us) and Kevin were finishing the “Biofilms” book, which was an enormous undertaking, and probably the first Biofilm text book. One of the things that struck me at that time was the frontier feeling of camaraderie (with Bozeman Montana as the perfect setting) within the biofilm field, and how Kevin and Bill worked incredibly hard academically, were incredibly insightful but not pretentious, and yet still had a great sense of fun and made sure there was time to enjoy life. I am pleased that, although the biofilm field has grown immensely since those days, that the “work hard - play hard” legacy of Kevin and colleagues who were instrumental in shaping the field still continues.
- Paul Stoodley, PhD, Lecturer in Microbial Tribology, University of Southampton, UK

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Industry Highlights

New Small Business Associate

WuXi AppTec has joined the CBE as our newest small business member. WuXi is an R/D service company specializing in testing for medical devices and pharma. The designated representative will be Michael Corby.

 Read more about WuXi AppTec
 

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Research Highlights

$2M NSF Award

Great expectations from micro-organisms: MSU gets a $2 million grant from NSF to investigate a diesel-producing fungus. CBE associated faculty members Brent Peyton and Ross Carlson, chemical and biological engineering, have teamed up with Gary Strobel, plant sciences, and researchers at Yale University to optimize the production of hydrocarbon-rich vapors from Gliocladium roseum.

Read short story and view video (pdf)
Read the full story
 

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In the Media

Mary Cloud Ammons was one of seven winners of the BD Biosciences Fall 2009 Research Grant Program selected to receive individual grants of research reagents valued at $10,000. She was interviewed about her research which examines the function of the innate immune system in the presence of biofilms.

Read the interview stories, “Fall 2009 Research Grant Recipients Talk About Their Research.”

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Latest CBE Publications

"A biofilm growth protocol and the design of a magnetic field exposure setup to be used in the study of magnetic fields as a means of controlling bacterial biofilms"
McLeod BR, Sandvik EL
Bioelectromagnetics 2010; 31(1):56-63
Read abstract

"Checking the validity of the harvesting and disaggregating steps in laboratory tests of surface disinfectants”
Hamilton M, Buckingham-Meyer K, and Goeres DM
Journal of AOAC International 2009; 92(6):1755-1762
Read abstract

"In silico approaches to study mass and energy flows in microbial consortia: a syntrophic case study"
Taffs R, Aston JE, Brileya K , Jay Z , Klatt CG, McGlynn S, Mallette N, Montross S, Gerlach R, Inskeep WP, Ward DM and Carlson RP
BMC Systems Biology 2009, 3:114
Read abstract

“Methods for imaging and quantifying the structure of biofilms in food processing and other environments”
Lewandowski Z, Beyenal H
In: Biofilms in the food and beverage industries, CRC Press 2009. pp. 99 – 130

View all of the CBE’s 2009 publications

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New Faculty

In November 2009 we welcomed Rich Macur, Assistant Research Professor, Land Resources & Environmental Sciences. His areas of expertise include: geochemistry (aqueous and solid phase characterization), molecular biology (microbial community composition and distribution, gene expression), microbiology (cultivation and characterization of bacteria and novel thermophilic archaea), and analysis of genomic and metagenomic data using bioinformatic approaches. Rich is interested in biofuel production, and will be working with the Algal BioFuel Group in Brent Peyton’s lab.

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Farewell

Stacy Parks, Research Engineer, accepted a job with Bend Research, Inc. in Bend, OR. In the last three years, she has worked with Al Cunningham’s group and contributed substantially to research on Subsurface Biofilm Barriers for Enhanced Geologic Sequestration of Supercritical CO2. We will miss her at the CBE but wish her the best in this new opportunity for her career.

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Education

Thesis Alert

“Reactive transport in biofouled and biomineralized porous media,” Thesis Defense by Logan Schultz, MS candidate in Chemical Engineering, Montana State University, January 2010.

"Alkaline hydrolysis of explosives," Thesis Defense by Catherine E. VanEngelen, PhD candidate in Chemical and Biological Engineering, Montana State University, December 2009.

View thesis abstracts

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CBE People in Action

Darla Goeres presented “Standardized methods: Development and validation of a treatment method” and Al Parker presented “Ruggedness assessment and experimental design in the biofilm laboratory,” to representatives of the Biological and Economic Analysis Division (BEAD) and Antimicrobials Division (AD) of the EPA, Fort Meade, Maryland, December 2 – 3, 2009.

Crescentia Cummins (Little Big Horn College), Tim Ford (University of New England), Mari Eggers and three members of the Crow Environmental Health Steering Committee gave a Webinar for the EPA, “Community based risk assessment of exposure to contaminants via water sources on the Crow Reservation in Montana,” as part of the EPA series Promoting Environmental Health in Native American Communities, November 18, 2009, Washington, D.C.

Lindsey Lorenz presented poster, “Evaluation of contaminated bulk soap dispensers for biofilm bacteria: Comparison of two methods of analysis and effectiveness of dispenser washing procedures,” 5th ASM Conference on Biofilms, Cancun, Mexico, November 15 - 19, 2009.

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