I am the coordinator of this group of projects, and am personally responsible for four student research topics. Elinor Pulcini, Ph.D. candidate in microbiology, is investigating the changes in physiology cells undergo when they become attached to surfaces. She is using 2-D gel electrophoresis to detect de novo protein synthesis as an indicator of the changes. An understanding of the changes that bacteria undergo when biofilms are formed will potentially allow us to devise novel control mechanisms. A second project was developed to determine the availability of natural organic matter sorbed to iron oxides.
Iron oxides are a common material in the soil environment as well as in water distribution systems.
Liwei Qi, a master's candidate in Chemical Engineering, is in charge of the work. He is determining sorption isotherms for the natural organic matter on synthetic iron oxides, and then determining the utilization rates of the material by attached bacteria. The results from his work will provide insight on the manner in which biofilm bacteria exist in very low nutrient environments. The work was begun in response to the perception that biofilm formation could be manipulated by modifying the surface topography or chemistry of a surface. Jenny's follow-up experiments are looking at the importance of changes in chemistry if the topography is held constant.