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The mitigation of bacterial adhesion to surfaces and subsequent biofilm formation is a key challenge in healthcare and manufacturing processes. To accurately predict biofilm formation you must determine how changes to bacteria behaviours and dynamics alter their ability to adhere to surfaces. In this talk, I will present a framework for incorporating microscale behaviour into continuum models using techniques from statistical mechanics at the microscale combined with boundary-layer theory at the macroscale.
We will examine the flow of a dilute suspension of motile bacteria over a flat absorbing surface, developing an effective model for the bacteria density near the boundary inspired by the classical Lévêque boundary layer problem. We use our effective model to derive analytical solutions for the bacterial adhesion rate as a function of fluid shear rate and individual motility parameters of the bacteria, validating against stochastic numerical simulations of individual bacteria. We find that bacterial adhesion is greatest at intermediate flow rates, since at higher flow rates shear-induced upstream swimming limits adhesion.
Further Information
Dr Edwina Yeo is an applied mathematician working at the interface of continuum mechanics and mathematical biology. She specialises in developing mathematical models for biological and biomedical fluid-mechanics processes, with research spanning regenerative medicine, nanotechnology, microbiology and geology. Her recent work includes models of bacterial adhesion in fluid flow, Von Willebrand Factor dynamics in arterial flows, and microscale contaminant behaviour extracted from imaging data.
Her publications appear in journals such as Biomechanics and Modelling in Mechanobiology, Advanced Materials, and Royal Society Interface, alongside recent collaborative preprints. She is currently an EPSRC National Fellow in Fluid Dynamics at UCL and a visiting research fellow in OCIAM.