The EU-funded e.Biofilm project is building a group of excellence focused on engineering biofilms. For that, we will explore control mechanisms that are based on imaging and molecular characterization of the complex ecology. DOI:  10.3030/101087568 



Biofilms are cooperative communities of microorganisms notorious for their negative impacts on industrial systems and in the medical community. Biofilms in cooling towers, for example, foul and corrode the surface impeding system performance. The medical community battles biofilms that present as chronic infections or infected indwelling medical devices, resulting in poor patient outcomes.

The EU-funded e.Biofilm project at the University of Porto, Portugal is building a group of excellence focused on engineering biofilms in the laboratory that will enable for their control, removal or prevention in industrial and medical applications. The ERA Chair holder will utilise her expertise and network to establish a research and training programme that cultivates links within the scientific community, industry, regulators and the public.

Biofilms are complex and dynamic structures of interface-associated microbial cells, enclosed in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances. They are ubiquitous both in nature and human-built environments, greatly affecting the progression of clinical infections, environmental sustainability, and industrial processes. The complexity of these structures renders the apparently simple goal of engineering and growing reproducible biofilms as an elusive task.

The main objective of this proposal is to set-up a Group of Excellence on engineered Biofilms (e.BIOFILM) at the Faculty of Engineering of the University of Porto (UPorto). e.BIOFILM will build upon the expertise and network of experts from the prospective ERA Chair holder Darla Goeres and her current employee, the Center for Biofilm Engineering of Montana State University (MSU), the most well-established centre in biofilm research in the world. In addition to research excellence in engineered biofilms, e.BIOFILM will include a thriving educational and training program, a technology transfer program that promotes innovation, and adequate communication and dissemination strategies that establishes links with the scientific community, industry, regulatory entities and the public in general in the European Research Area.