A Forensic Approach Towards Biofilm Management

生物膜管理的法医方法

• 批准号: 1437860
• 负责人: Sharon Walker
• 金额: $ 33.51万
• 依托单位: University of California-Riverside
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Continuing Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-02-01 至 2019-01-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1437860&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Forensic; Approach; Towards; Biofilm; Management

Walker1437860A Forensic Approach Towards Biofilm ManagementMembranes are becoming one of the technologies of choice for many applications in water and wastewater treatment. However, membranes suffer from the formation of a biological film (biofilm) that over time decreases their throughput or treatment efficiency. The development of biofilm resistant surfaces has been an ongoing research objective for several decades, with multiple strategies attempted with varying degrees of success. However, to date, no truly biofilm resistant materials are commercially available. In fact, many experts in the field are moving away from the notion that truly biofilm resistant surfaces can even exist, and instead, better biofilm management practices need to be developed. Current biofilm management practices rely on chemical cleaning agents not specifically tailored for a given biofilm, and therefore, cleaning strategies often rely on an iterative process designed to test "what works". This project will explore the tailoring of chemical cleaning strategies to specific biofilm and collector surface attributes, with the purpose of transforming biofilm management practices from a trial-and-error process to a scientifically grounded activity that relies on deep understanding of the relationship between individual biofilm components, collector surface properties, and different cleaning agents. This project will improve the understanding of biofilm cleaning methods and study the fundamental interactions between different elements of a microbial biofilm, collector surface properties, and different cleaning agents with the goal of developing transformative biofilm management practices. The outreach portion of this proposed work seeks to integrate research and education. Specifically, the PIs propose engaging veterans at Riverside Community College in the exciting world of environmental science and engineering through summer internships. These internships will provide experiential learning opportunities to both motivate and inform the veterans in the opportunities in environmental engineering. At the end of the summer internship, the Riverside Community College students will present their work at the University of California Riverside, Undergraduate Summer Research Symposium and at RCC.The specific objectives of the project are: 1) determination of the impact of representative cleaning agents on individual biofilm components; 2) evaluation of the interactions between collector surface characteristics and individual biofilm components; 3) determination of the impact of residual components of biofilms after microbial cleaning on re-fouling potential; and 4) optimization of microbial management practices. These objectives will be met with a combination of bacterial and surficial analysis techniques including a parallel plate flow chamber, confocal microscopy, and impedance spectroscopy. It is expected that this project will produce the following outcomes: 1) an understanding of the interactions between specific cleaning agents and individual components of a microbial biofilm that will aid in the design of more efficient cleaning strategies for microbially fouled surfaces, such as water treatment membranes; 2) a better understanding of the fundamental relationship between surface properties and individual biofilm components that will inform the engineering of biofilm-prone surfaces, such as membranes; 3) an understanding of the impact of residual biofilm components on the re-fouling of collector surfaces; and 4) a transformative biofilm management strategy based on the forensic investigation of biofouled properties coupled with a tailored cleaning approach optimized to specific biofilm compositions. The expected outcomes can be applied in multiple situations where biofouling is a major concern, enhancing the efficiency of important industrial processes such as heat exchangers and membrane-based water treatment processes.

Walker1437860a生物膜管理的法医方法正在成为水和废水处理中许多应用的首选技术之一。然而，膜遭受生物膜（生物膜）的形成，随着时间的流逝，膜会降低其吞吐量或治疗效率。几十年来，生物膜耐药表面的发展一直是一个持续的研究目标，并尝试以不同程度的成功尝试进行多种策略。但是，迄今为止，尚无商业上可用的真正耐生化材料。实际上，该领域的许多专家正在摆脱真正抗生物膜的表面甚至可以存在的观念，相反，需要开发更好的生物膜管理实践。当前的生物膜管理实践依赖于非专门针对给定生物膜量身定制的化学清洁剂，因此，清洁策略通常依赖于旨在测试“有效的方法”的迭代过程。该项目将探索化学清洁策略对特定的生物膜和收集器表面属性的剪裁，目的是将生物膜管理实践从试验和错误的过程转变为科学基础的活动，这些活动依赖于对单个生物膜组件，收集器表面特性和不同清洁工之间的关系的深入了解。该项目将提高对生物膜清洁方法的理解，并研究微生物生物膜不同元素，收集器表面特性和不同清洁剂之间的基本相互作用，目的是开发变革性的生物膜管理实践。这项拟议工作的外展部分旨在整合研究和教育。具体而言，PIS建议通过暑期实习在令人兴奋的环境科学和工程世界的河滨社区学院参与退伍军人。这些实习将提供体验式的学习机会，以激励和告知退伍军人的环境工程机会。在暑期实习结束时，河滨社区大学的学生将在加利福尼亚大学河滨大学，本科夏季研究研讨会和RCC上展示他们的作品。该项目的具体目标是：1）确定代表性清洁剂对单个生物膜组件的影响； 2）评估收集器表面特征与单个生物膜成分之间的相互作用； 3）确定微生物清洁后生物膜残留成分对重新烧结潜力的影响； 4）优化微生物管理实践。这些目标将结合细菌和表面分析技术的结合，包括平行板流室，共聚焦显微镜和阻抗光谱。预计该项目将产生以下结果：1）了解特定清洁剂与微生物生物膜的各个组件之间的相互作用，这些相互作用将有助于设计用于微生物污染表面的更有效的清洁策略，例如水处理膜； 2）更好地理解表面特性与单个生物膜成分之间的基本关系，这些关系将为生物膜易发的表面（例如膜）提供信息； 3）理解残留生物膜成分对收集器表面污染的影响； 4）基于对生物融合特性的法医研究，以及针对特定生物膜组成的量身定制的清洁方法的法医研究。预期的结果可以在多种情况下应用，在这种情况下，生物污染是主要问题的，从而提高了重要工业过程的效率，例如热交换器和基于膜的水处理过程。