biofilm Tag

Birmingham scientists have revealed a new method to increase efficiency in biocatalysis, in a paper published today in Materials Horizons. Biocatalysis uses enzymes, cells or microbes to catalyse chemical reactions, and is used in settings such as the food and chemical industries to make products that are not accessible by chemical synthesis. It can produce pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, or food ingredients on an industrial scale. However a major challenge in biocatalysis is that the most commonly used microbes, such as probiotics and non-pathogenic strains of Escherichia coli, are not necessarily good at forming biofilms, the growth promoting ecosystems that form a protective micro-environment around communities of microbes and increase their resilience and so boost productivity. This problem is normally solved by genetic engineering, but researchers...