en
Elizabeth Ison, a final year PhD researcher in the School of Pharmacy and Life Sciences at the University of Nottingham, was recently awarded the Don Whitley Scientific Travel Grant, which she used to attend the National Biofilm Innovation Centre (NBIC) Summit in Southampton.
The meeting brought together academic and industrial leads to discuss current research on biofilms. Biofilms are the structural barriers that microorganisms, such as bacteria and fungi, use to protect themselves from environmental stresses. Biofilms impact on many sectors including healthcare, waste-water management, and fuel production, meaning meetings such as the NBIC summit are vital to encourage discussions across the various sectors.
Elizabeth presented her research, titled '3D Holography Reveals the Impact of Antimicrobials on Bacteria Motility', on developing models of bacterial motion to understand how mouthwashes can prevent bacteria from sticking to teeth and forming biofilms. Many bacteria found in the mouth are anaerobic, meaning the use of the Whitley M35 Workstation, with its variable atmosphere, was vital for growing these microorganisms to use in the models.
We asked Elizabeth to share more about her research and her Travel Grant experience:
“By using bacterial motion to understand the antimicrobial effects of mouthwashes, both numerical data and imaging data were acquired. The technique used (digital holographic microscopy) generates 3D tracking videos of individual bacterial cell movements enabling the effects of mouthwashes to be visualised clearly. The model revealed the powerful effects of mouthwashes stopping bacteria from sticking, so reducing the numbers of bacteria producing biofilms that accumulate on teeth over time.
The opportunity to present this work to the biofilm field enabled me to demonstrate the power of this imaging technique and how it can be translated to different sectors of biofilm research. Being able to discuss the model with potential new collaborators is vital to progressing the technique and finding additional research questions that it could be used to answer.”
We are pleased to see our workstations helping to facilitate doctoral research and we congratulate Elizabeth on receiving the Don Whitley Scientific Travel Grant. If you are interested in our travel grants, please find more details on the Travel Grant page. For more information on our Microaerobic Workstation range please see the products below or email us at sales@dwscientific.co.uk.
English