PARTNER UNIVERSITY

University of York

Research Areas & Focuses

  1. Interdisciplinary research – applying non-biological expertise to understand biofilms.
  2. Anaerobic microbial communities.
  3. Biofilms in polymicrobial communities; phage effects on biofilms.
  4. Bacterial interactions within biofilms-interdisciplinary approaches.
  5. Topical drug delivery (e.g. to biofilms in wounds).
  6. Mathematical modelling of microbial interactions and fluid flow.
  7. Single-molecule optical imaging to determine extracellular matrix architectures of biofilms.
  8. Technology for early detection and understanding biofilms.
  9. Microfluidics.
  10. Novel Imaging Technologies.
  11. Genomic, metagenomic and transcriptomic profiling of microbial communities.
  12. Proteomic and glycomic analysis of biofilm components.

University of York

For enquiries, please contact Katerina Steventon. 

Email Katerina

Facilities

  • Bioscience Technology Facility
  • BTF-Imaging and Cytometry
  • BTF-Genomics and Bioinformatics
  • BTF-Molecular Interactions and Biophysics
  • BTF-Metabolomics and Proteomics
  • BTF-Protein Production

Researchers

Martin Bees, Maths
Michael Bottery, Independent Fellow in Biology
James Chong, Biology
Calvin Dytham, Biology
Martin Fascione, Chemistry
Ville Friman, Biology
Steven Johnson, Electronic Engineering
Jose Juan-Colas, Independent Fellow in Electronic Engineering
Thomas Krauss, Physics
Mark Leake, Biology and Physics
James Moir, Biology
Peter O’Toole, Cross-Departmental
Gavin Thomas, Biology
Yue Wang, Physics
Laurence Wilson, Physics
Jamie Wood, Biology and Maths
Marjan van der Woude, Biology
Tarl Prow, Hull York Medical School

 

 

Individually addressable microfluidic microchambers with different growth conditions to investigate P. aureginosa early biofilm formation. The device allows isolating chemical from physical interactions by imposing spatial structure at the micrometer scale. (José Juan-Colás).
Three-dimensional cell tracks from a holographic recording of E. coli. 1040 tracks were obtained from an 80-second video. The data have been rendered to scale, and the squares on the ground are 50 µm on a side. The recording was obtained with laser illumination (λ = 642nm), and raw data was processed in around 1 hour on a 12-core computer. The data may be used to assess the internal state of cells, based on tumble rate, run speed and other motility parameters. (Laurence Wilson).
The Technology Facility provides access to a wide range of cutting edge technologies directed to biofilm research. The coherent and joined up set of labs cover everything from imaging and cytometry, through to Molecular Interactions and Biophysics, Metabolomics and Proteomics, Genomics and Bioinformatics and Protein Production. The Imaging lab alone has Super Resolution Microscopy (AiryScan), Multi-Photon, Confocal Microscopy, Label-free QPI (Ptychography and Digital Holography, SEM, TEM, Plate reading Flow Cytometry and Cell Sorting that are all used for bacterial studies. Shown here is a Zeiss LSM 880 AiryScan confocal microscope.
System-60 consists of 60 x 5L automatically fed and constantly monitored anaerobic digesters. (James Chong).