Dynamic behaviours during biofilm development

Bacterial biofilms offer an attractive model system to study dynamic interactions of cells in a community. At the same time, biofilms are often a clinical challenge due to their extreme tolerance to antibiotics. Combining fluorescence time-lapse imaging, molecular biology, stiffness measurements and mathematical modelling (in collaboration with biologists, physicists and material scientists), we have uncovered physical and metabolic interactions that are crucial for biofilm development. In the first part of my talk, I will present spatio-temporal pattern of cell death and mechanical buckling during biofilm formation of Bacillus subtilis. Then, I will present our recent discovery of oscillatory behaviour of biofilms.