Montana State Professor Mentioned in The Economist Article About Biofilms

From MSU News Service

BOZEMAN – Montana State University professor Matthew Fields was mentioned in a Sept. 27 article in The Economist magazine about technologies that may help fight destructive biofilms. Fields is a professor in the Norm Asbjornson College of Engineering and the College of Agriculture and director of MSU's Center for Biofilm Engineering.

"Matthew Fields, a microbiologist at Montana State University, reckons that most of the bacteria living on the planet exist in colonies," states the article, which explains in detail how bacteria aggregate into colonies, or biofilms, where they find strength in numbers and behave like multicellular organisms.

The article explains that those properties can contribute to antibiotic-resistant bacterial infections in open wounds and medical implants.

Although the article is titled, "Sticking together makes bacteria nearly invincible," it goes on to highlight three methods being tested by companies to hinder biofilms: bacteriophages, which are viruses that infect bacteria but "leave the host's cells alone;" cold plasma, a chemically altered substance that may make biofilm more vulnerable to antibiotics; and therapies that involve injecting proteins into biofilms to destroy their structures, thereby thwarting their antibiotic resistance.

"It's too early to say which, if any, of these approaches might lead to useful drugs," the article states. "But as bacteria continue to evolve resistance to antibiotics, the problems posed by biofilms will only grow ... The more companies that pile in, the higher the chance one of them could turn up something revolutionary."

MSU's Center for Biofilm Engineering, founded in 1990 with a prestigious 11-year National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center grant, is the world's first, largest and best-known biofilm research center. Its scientists have been cited more than 95,000 times. The CBE continues to work with researchers around the world to unlock the mysteries of biofilms and advance the frontiers of health, environment, energy and industry through biofilm research, education and outreach.