Regensburg 2010 – scientific programme

Parts | Days | Selection | Search | Downloads | Help

BP: Fachverband Biologische Physik

BP 32: Posters: Physics of Cells

BP 32.38: Poster

Thursday, March 25, 2010, 17:15–20:00, Poster B1

Influence of subsurface composition on the adhesion of bacteria and the adsorption of proteins — •Peter Loskill, Yvonne Schmitt, Hendrik Hähl, and Karin Jacobs — Saarland University, 66123 Saarbrücken, Germany

Biofilms are of special importance in various fields of the everyday life. Their initial formation is composed of two crucial steps: the adsorption of proteins and the adhesion of bacteria. These are complicated processes that depend on many factors.

So far, most studies focused on surface chemistry, hydrophobicity and surface roughness - factors which influence mainly the short range interactions.

Our studies concentrate on the impact of long range interactions, in particular van der Waals forces, which can be tuned by the use of tailored substrates. To characterize the processes, we follow two pathways: One way is to characterize protein adsorption on a fundamental level via ellipsometry. Another is to directly probe bacterial adhesion by AFM - force spectroscopy. As model systems we use Staphylococcus aureus bacteria and proteins like amylase, lysozyme and bovine serum albumin. The results of our experiments show that protein adsorption kinetics as well as bacterial adhesion are dependent on the subsurface composition of the substrate [1,2]. Hence it is of great importance for the design of anti-adhesive surfaces to consider not only the lateral but also the vertical composition of the substrate.

[1] A. Quinn et al., Europhysics Lett. 81 (2008) 56003

[2] M. Bellion et al., J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 20 (2008) 404226