Thread by @realscientists

For my M.S. thesis, I studied ways to disrupt #biofilms - individual bacteria cells that come together & form a community that is up to 1000 times more resistant to antibiotics!

Biofilm formation is kind of like when 10 individual people (bacteria cells) come together & tightly lock arms to form a group (biofilm). You can imagine, it's much harder to knock over a group of 10 people than 1 person by them self. This is how bacteria mobilize under stress.

Biofilms are a perfect example of how diverse communities thrive. The cells in a biofilm are all doing different things to ensure survival.

I asked the question - how is biofilm formation regulated? Can we genetically manipulate bacteria to change how biofilms form?

Here's an example of this question (how are biofilms regulated?) in an experiment

Far Left: A normal, healthy E. coli biofilm

Every other row: Deleting/changing essential genes needed for biofilm formation.