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Biofilm solutions

What is a biofilm?

Biofilm science is a relatively new technical discipline, which has emerged in response to the tremendous opportunities and significant costs resulting from damage caused by biofilms. It was not until the 1990s that the elaborate organization of attached bacteria was appreciated. Research on biofilms has progressed rapidly in the last decade. Due to the fact that bacterial biofilms can cause multidisciplinary problems, and studies of biofilms have required the development of new analytical tools, many recent advances have resulted from collaborations between microbial ecologists, environmental engineers and mathematicians.

These efforts have led to the current definition of microbial biofilms as "a structured community of microbial cells enclosed in a self-produced polymeric matrix and adherent to an inert or living surface."

Biofilms can be comprised of a single microbial species or multiple microbial species and can form on a range of living and non-living surfaces. Although mixed-species biofilms predominate in most environments, single-species biofilms exist in a variety of infections and on the surface of medical implants.

Biofilms exhibit a mode of growth that allows survival in a hostile environment. The structures biofilms form contain channels in which nutrients can circulate, and cells in different regions of biofilms exhibit different patterns of gene expression. These biofilm communities can rapidly multiply and disperse. In this light, it is not surprising a considerable number of chronic bacterial infections involve biofilms.

How do biofilms form?

New understandings of how biofilms develop and propagate suggest ideas for preventing and eliminating them. Standard antibiotics often fail because they do not penetrate biofilms fully or do not harm bacteria of all species and metabolic states in the films.

1. Free-swimming bacterial cells alight on a surface, arrange themselves in clusters and attach.
2. The collected cells begin producing a liquid matrix.
3. The cells signal on another to multiply and form a microcolony.
4. Chemical gradients arise and promote the coexistence of diverse species and metabolic states.
5. Some cells return to their free-living form and escape, perhaps to form new biofilms.

A biofilm is built of many groupings of microcolonies, separated by a network of open water channels. The fluid coursing through these tiny conduits bathes each congregation of microbes, providing dissolved nutrients and removing waste products.

Kane Biotech’ core technology

Although there are no specific anti-biofilm products on the market, recent advances in science and technology have helped to initiate the development of products based on molecular genetics of biofilm formation to combat biofilm problems. These are very specific, highly effective and environmentally safe. As these technological advances continue, the value of such products is expected to increase.

Biofilms represent an interdisciplinary research area that focuses on understanding and modulating the combination of biological and chemical reactions as well as transport and interfacial transfer processes affecting microbial accumulations and activity at surfaces.

A method to screen for factors affecting biofilm formation has been developed which is applicable to the analysis of genes, gene products and compounds (synthetic or natural) affecting biofilm formation or dispersal. This approach can be used to identify compounds that alter biofilm formation, or dispersal, and to identify biomolecules that promote biofilm formation.

Kane Biotech recognizes the immediate need for products to control biofilms in natural and industrial environments. It is widely believed that the most successful anti-biofilm products of the future will be based on genes or gene products that regulate biofilms. The Company's technology presents a strong opportunity to develop anti-biofilm therapeutics and industrial products based on the genes, gene products, genetics and molecular biology of biofilm formation and dispersal.