Context and Objectives

Biofilms are responsible for billions of dollars in production losses and treatment costs in the industry every year. Indeed biofilms involve :

Food spoilage or poisoning in the food industry

Pathogens' persistence and dispersal in health industry

Corrosion and diameter reduction of pipelines

Assuming that the environment is over-saturated with harmful chemicals such as biocides, whose long-term health effects still have to be elucidated, there is a great need for novel solutions to reduce detrimental biofilm effects.
Thus, we develop a new generation of solution against biofilms in industry, which allows to reduce :

The use of harmful chemical reagents in cleaning processes

The cleaning costs for industrialists

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PROJECT STRATEGY

Our solution is based on engineered bacterial "torpedos" capable of infiltrating, destroying biofilms (KILL) and protecting the cleaned surfaces by either a surfactant coating (COAT option), or by establishment of a positive biofilm ( STICK option).

This tunneling activity of Bacillus subtilis swimmer cells enables to :

Facilitate the delivery of the active substances within the biofilm.

Destroy the inacessible biofilms in pipes.

Moreover Bacillus strains are non pathogenic and do not cause equipment deteroriation by corrosion.

To sum up, this biocide-alternative strategy provides a money-saving and an environementally friendly solution for the control of unwanted biofilm.