Biophysics of Bacterial Biofilms

Bacteria frequently occupy densely populated surface-bound communities, known as “biofilms”. It is largely unknown how bacteria organize their collective behavior inside biofilms, and how biofilms behave in natural environments. In this presentation, I will focus on how fluid physics shapes the dynamics of collective behaviors inside biofilms in geometrically complex environments. I will also introduce a new method that allows us to image all individual cells in bacterial biofilms, and show how biofilm communities avoid invasion by members of their own species and other species. This presentation will illustrate the rich interplay of bacterial cooperative behaviors in biofilm communities and physics.