Congratulations to our SFB 1313 doctoral researcher (research project ) and his colleagues! They received the publication prize 2025 of the Faculty 2 of the University of Stuttgart for their publication "Intermittent flow paths in biofilms grown in a microfluidic channel". The publication award is endowed with 2,500 euros each and is awarded regardless of career stage. The ceremony took place at the University of Stuttgart on 1 July 2026. As Kerem Bozkurt could not be there in presence, his co-author Daniel Hanke received the prize for him.
Authors
Abstract
Biofilms exposed to flow experience shear stress, which leads to a competitive interaction between the growth and development of a biofilm and shearing. In this study, Pseudomonas fluorescens biofilm was grown in a microfluidic channel and exposed to forced flow of an aqueous solution of variable velocity. It can be observed that under certain conditions preferential flow paths form with a dynamic, but quasi-steady state interaction of growth, detachment, and re-attachment. We find that the regimes for preferential flow path development are determined by nutrient availability and the ratio of shear stress versus the biofilm’s ability to resist shear forces. The intermittent regime of flow paths is mainly driven by the supply with nutrients, which we confirm by comparison with a numerical model based on coarse-grained molecular dynamics and Lattice Boltzmann hydrodynamics.