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Team Builds Viruses To Combat Harmful "Biofilms"

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the who-eats-the-eaters dept.

Scientists from MIT and Boston University are creating viruses that will wipe out "biofilms" that contain harmful bacteria on surfaces of the human body and industrial or medical devices. "Bacterial biofilms can form almost anywhere, even on your teeth if you don't brush for a day or two. When they accumulate in hard to reach places such as the insides of food processing machines or medical catheters, however, they become persistent sources of infection. These bacteria excrete a variety of proteins, polysaccharides, and nucleic acids that together with other accumulating materials form an extracellular matrix, or in Lu's words, a "slimy layer," that encases the bacteria. Traditional remedies such as antibiotics are not as effective on these bacterial biofilms as they are on free-floating bacteria. In some cases, antibiotics even encourage bacterial biofilms to form."

3 of 108 comments (clear)

  1. More interested in the biofilms, myself by Phoenix666 · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Instead of killing off biofilms, it would be much more interesting to teach them to calcify their protein matrices either within a mold or by guided deposition to form structures useful to humans. Hello, organic technology. How cool would it be to open a pan of biofilm, pour a couple gallons of milk on it, and grow yourself a new laptop?

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  2. As a home brewer by gillbates · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Biofilms are the bane of my brew. However, this is really not needed because the current sanitizing agents work well enough to eliminate bacteria.

    My concern is that using a virus to disrupt biofilms will have much more undesirable side effects than the simple chemicals being used already. For example, I want to kill bacteria, but allow yeast to grow afterward. If I treat a fermenter with this virus, can I be sure that it won't affect the yeast in some way? I can be sure that rinsing will dilute the sanitizer enough so that it isn't a problem, but could one say the same thing of a virus? Probably not.

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  3. Good for RO systems by Mspangler · · Score: 2, Interesting

    A plan we had to treat wastewater with an RO unit failed only because some sulfate-reducing bacteria kept fouling the membranes. Six days and they were completely slimed. So a slimer killing virus sounds like a great idea. And safer than crossing proton streams too :-)

    This should also be very useful for seawater RO units. At least there is a potential for a better method of slime control.

    Hope it works!