Bacteria can stick to both living and inanimate surfaces where they can produce copious amounts of an extracellular polymeric material. This material forms a polymer gel matrix termed a biofilm. The Principal Investigator (PI) proposes to develop a better understanding of the mechanisms that govern biofilm formation, persistence, and performance. This will include the determination of the characteristics of the polymer gel matrix as a function of bacterial species and prevailing growth conditions, and the assessment of the biofilm extracellular polymer gel matrix in the mass transport of specific macromolecules (e.g. antibiotics, bacterially-produced pigments, chromosomal- and plasmid-DNA).
