Come to my window: Porosity and binding distribution provide better predictors for biofilm penetration
A Warren Distinguished Lecture with
Andrew D. Jones
Civil and Environmental Engineering
Duke University
Abstract
The Jones Systems for Engaging the Environment Lab builds novel tools to study biofilm dynamics. In this presentation Andrew Jones will discuss two such tools: a mechanical tool and a mathematical tool describing Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 interaction with antibiotics. Biofilms are the common mode of life for bacteria in infections and in the environment. Biofilm infections have been shown to be more recalcitrant to antibiotic treatment than planktonic bacteria. This recalcitrance has been partially attributed to periphery sequestration, where antibiotics fail to penetrate biofilm cell clusters. Biofilms have also been identified as the primary environmental sink of engineered nanomaterials. However, there have been results attributing charge as the main predictor of biofilm uptake of these nano-sized materials. Jones' team developed a model for antibiotic accumulation in bacterial biofilm microcolonies using heterogenous porosity and attachment site profiles replicating the periphery sequestration reported in prior experimental studies on Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 biofilm cell clusters. They account for periphery sequestration using two physical phenomena: biofilm matrix attachment and volume-exclusion due to variable biofilm porosity. The antibiotic accumulation model which incorporated both phenomena better fit observed periphery sequestration data compared to previous models that leveraged charge. They propose a novel tool for being able to conduct medium throughput screens with microscopy measurements on these biofilms and validate it against existing standards. They show quantifiable effects of antibiotics on biofilm streamers and propose that this may be useful for quantifying the attachment site density and porosity.
Speaker
A-Andrew (Andrew) D. Jones, III is an Assistant Professor of Environmental Engineering. He is affiliated with the Duke Materials Initiative, Duke Microbiome Center and co-PI of the NIH NIEHS-funded Integrated Toxicology & Environmental Health Program. He is senior personnel on an NSF-funded Precision Microbiome Engineering Research Center where among other studies, he is investigating the interactions of building materials with microbes found after Hurricane Helene. He is an affiliate faculty at the NSF-Simons National Institute for Theoretical & Mathematical Biology. He studies biofilm physicochemical dynamics using modeling/scaling analysis and design/engineering to solve global challenges related to water and health. He received the NIH R35 Maximizing Investigator’s Research Award to develop new models and tools for studying biofilms. He was recognized by the 2018 Young Investigator Award from the Center for Biofilm Engineering at Montana State, the premier center for biofilm research in the country. He and his team have presented at over 60 conferences and seminars. Patent pending work from his lab is optioned as one of the newest biofilm tools in 20 years. He has supervised 2 high school students, over 20 undergraduates, 5 MS, 6 PhD, and 2 post-doctoral trainees including 8 from underrepresented backgrounds and 19 women. He was recognized as the 2023 Outstanding Postdoc Mentor of the Year at Duke. He received a BS in Mathematics and BS, MS, and PhD in Mechanical Engineering from MIT where he was a Lemelson Presidential Fellow studying microbial fuel cells.
