PhD Project by Yuyan Liu

Project Title: Microstructured Polymer Surfaces for Growth of Marine Bacteria
Group: Polymer Microsystems 
Supervisor: Rafael Taboryski

Project Description
This is an interdisciplinary project combining top-down microfabrication, electron microscopy, and marine bacterial ecophysiology. The purpose of the project is to create structures and topologies that enable formation of beneficial marine bacteria biofilms on microfabricated polymeric surfaces. The motivation for the project is the need for sustainable aquaculture without the use of antibiotics and the associated risk of bacterial antibiotic resistance.

The study will focus on marine bacteria from the Roseobacter group, which, especially when growing in a biofilm, can inhibit other microorganisms by the antibacterial compound, tropodithietic acid, TDA. The hypothesis of the project is that an optimal surface structure and chemistry can be identified that promote roseobacters to form robust biofilms with associated enhanced release of TDA.