Research at Costerton Biofilm Center

The research at the Center is closely integrated with Department of Odontology, Department of Clinical Medicine and Department of Experimental Medicine at the Faculty of Health and Medical Sciences and the Department of Clinical Microbiology at Rigshospitalet.

A wide range of expertise and skills are available at the Center and the scientists have unlimited access to experimental techniques such as state-of-the-art microscopes at the Core Facility for Integrated Microscopy situated 50 meters from the Center. Facilities are also available for the next generation gene expression analysis and chemical biology approaches with high-throughput screening of chemical libraries and chemical informatics tools are within the wider framework of research and development related to biofilm drug discovery.

Future perspectives

While biofilms are everywhere and affect each and every facet of our lives, our understanding of how they are organized and how they function is currently lacking. With the Costerton Biofilm Center, we envision to take research in biofilms up to a new level of comprehensive understanding that will allow us to chemically control biofilms. This will be done by using new, cutting-edge technologies that are now available in life-science.

The Center will provide a forum for scientists and clinicians and encourage research into the microbial aetiology of biofilms. By integrating translational and clinically relevant research, the Center will take the lead in improved prevention and development of new treatments of diseases caused by biofilms. The research will help explaining the riddle to why biofilm-bacteria gain the upper hand in the fight against our immune system, and hopefully lead to new and innovative strategies for early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of chronic diseases for the benefit of public health. The Center’s national and international dimension will be strengthened by the close collaboration with Singapore Centre on Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE).

Bacteria are visualized by means of FISH hybridization (red) and immune cells by DAPI stain (blue). The images illustrate the common pattern in two different chronic diseases: aggregates of biofilm bacteria surrounded by numerous immune, inflammatory cells that fail to eliminate the biofilm.