News

Announcement 26-29 June 2024

Eurobiofilms 2024

Fran attended the Eurobiofilms 2024 conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. She had the opportunity to present her ongoing research on ‘The role of Salmonella biofilm formation in the porcine gut’

Announcement 24 - 28 June 2024

Una Europa One Health Summer School 2024

Sybren was invited to represent the KU Leuven during the 2024 edition of the One Health Summer School organized by the Una Europa alliance. During this intensive week, international experts on human, animal and environmental health joined together amidst the Finnish nature to discuss the current understanding of and future directions for the One Health concept.

Announcement 24-26 June 2024

ARI Orthopedics 2024

Guglielmo attended the ARI Orthopedics 2024 conference organized by the AO foundation in Davos, Switzerland. He presented a poster on the development of a novel biofilm triggered antibiotic release coating for implantable devices.

Announcement 13-17 June 2024

ASM Microbes 2024

Mathieu Joos and Ines Thiers represented MiCA at ASM Microbes 2024 in Atlanta, Georgia. Mathieu Joos presented his work about ‘The influence of the pH on the antimicrobial activity of a Glycyrrhizin Hydrogel’, while Ines Thiers elaborated on Salmonella biofilm formation during infection in C. elegans and murine models.

Announcement 9-13 June 2024

NACARB 2024

Sander & Lauren recently attended the prestigious NACARB 2024 conference (New Approaches to Combat Antibiotic-Resistant Bacteria) in Ascona, Switzerland. This conference brought together leading researchers, scientists, and healthcare professionals to discuss and develop innovative strategies to address the growing threat of antibiotic resistance. At NACARB, they had the honor of presenting their latest research findings through a poster presentation.

Announcement 12-17 May 2024

EMBL Course: Advanced fluorescence imaging techniques

Thibault was invited to join a week-long course at the EMBL headquarters in Heidelberg covering a multitude of fluorescence microscopy techniques. Topics of the lectures and practicals ranged from single-molecule localization, FRET and superresolution to expansion and adaptive feedback microscopy.

Paper 11 October 2023

Competitive interactions facilitate resistance development against antimicrobials

Antimicrobial resistance is one of the most studied bacterial properties due to its enormous clinical and industrial relevance; however, most research focuses on resistance development of a single species in isolation. Luka Svet, Ilse Parijs, Simon Isphording, and Bram Lories showed in a paper published in Applied and Environmental Microbiology that resistance evolution of brewery isolates can differ greatly between single- and mixed-species conditions. Specifically, they observed that the development of antimicrobial resistance in certain species can be significantly enhanced in co-culture as compared to the single-species conditions. Overall, the study emphasizes the need of considering the within bacterial interactions in microbial communities when evaluating antimicrobial treatments and resistance evolution.

Group News 6 October 2023

Funding received: High-throughput identification of robust collateral sensitivity for antibiotic cycling applications in Staphylococcus aureus wound infections

Sander received an FWO Fellowship fundamental research funding his project on collateral sensitivity. In this project, we will explore the robustness and resistance dynamics underlying collateral sensitivity and assess the clinical potential of collateral sensitivity based drug cycling strategies.

Group News 6 October 2023

Funding received: Expanding the horizon of environmental Bacillus probiotics experimental evolution.

We are thrilled to announce that Lauren has successfully secured funding for her research project through a FWO-SB fellowship! This allows her to continue on her project about 'Expanding the horizon of environmental Bacillus probiotics experimental evolution'.

Group News 6 October 2023

The impact of biofilm architecture and heterogeneity on bacterial evolution

For this project, new microscopic and optogenetic techniques will be used to take a closer look at how the structured environment of biofilms influences the evolution of antibiotic resistance and cooperation in bacterial populations.

Group News 11 September 2023

Congratulations Gitta!

Gitta has successfully defended her PhD on ‘The effect of antibiotic resistance in Salmonella Typhimurium on competition with probiotics’. She will unfortunately be leaving us but we wish her all the best in her future career and life.

Group News 30 August 2023

Congratulations Pauline!

Pauline has successfully defended her PhD on ‘Characterization of antibiotic resistance evolution in view of alternative treatment strategies’. She will unfortunately be leaving us but we wish her all the best in her future career and life.

Announcement 9-13 July 2023

10th Congress of European Microbiologists (FEMS2023)

Both Jolien and Sybren represented the MiCA lab during the 10th Congress of European Microbiologists (FEMS2023) in Hamburg, Germany. During an Offered Talk Session, Jolien elaborated on her work on “The effect of Salmonella biofilm matrix on antimicrobial tolerance”, while Sybren presented a poster on “Origanum vulgare extracts as a promising source of compounds with anti-pathogenic activity against dental plaque isolates”.

Paper 16 June 2023

Anomalous diffusion of nanoparticles in the spatially heterogeneous biofilm environment

Nanoparticles are often suggested as a novel antimicrobial delivery strategy. Most of literature has focused on optimalisation of the chemical functionalization of nanoparticles, to improve nanoparticle penetration and antimicrobial efficacy in biofilms. In this work, Tom explored the effect of the biofilm architecture on the efficiency and efficacy on nanoparticle penetration.

Announcement 9-10 February 2023

4th Ghent Gut Inflammation Group Meeting - Intestinal host-microbiota interactions controlling health and disease

Ines elaborated on her work on “the interaction between virulence and biofilm traits during Salmonella infection in C. elegans”, during the Poster Session of the conference.

Paper 6 January 2023

Effect of chemical modifications of tannins on their antimicrobial and antibiofilm effect against Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacteria

In the scientific pursuit of harnessing tannins' inherent antibacterial capabilities, recent research by Xabier has unfurled intriguing revelations. Methodically scrutinizing five distinct tannin variants, we honed in on intricate chemical modifications, unravelling nuanced shifts in antibacterial and antibiofilm activity. This meticulous exploration not only advances our comprehension of tannins but also holds promise for finely tuned antibacterial interventions.

Paper 21 December 2022

Nutrient Availability and Biofilm Polysaccharide Shape the Bacillaene-Dependent Antagonism of Bacillus subtilis against Salmonella Typhimurium

Together with the Mandic-Mulec lab at the University of Ljubljana, we published a research paper exploring the probiotic potential of a novel Bacillus subtilis strain in combatting Salmonella and elucidated the mechanisms that underlie the inhibition of Salmonella.

Paper 8 December 2022

Antibiotic Cycling Affects Resistance Evolution Independently of Collateral Sensitivity

Drug cycling, based on collateral sensitivity is believed to be a promising strategy to increase the lifespan of our currently available antibiotics. However, it is not clear to which extent this decreased resistance evolution is solely due to collateral sensitivity. Therefore, Pauline Brepoels and Kenny Appermans examined the impact of additional mutational interactions in the genetic background beyond collateral sensitivity on further resistance evolution.

Announcement 7-8 December 2022

Emerging Applications of Microbes (2nd edition)

Thijs presented a poster about his work on Salmonella biofilm in chronic carrier pigs. More specifically, on the impact of biofilm formation on gut colonization and genetic markers for functional diagnostics.

Alshimaa also presented a poster about the role of Salmonella stress responses in virulence and tolerance and how targeting theses responses could provide an alternative strategy to control Salmonella infection.

Announcement 13-17 November 2022

9th ASM conference on Biofilms

Gitta elaborated on her work on “combinatorial treatment with antibiotics and the probiotic E. coli Nissle as a strategy to combat biofilms of cooperatively resistant Salmonella Typhimurium” during the 3rd Poster/Networking Session of the conference. Her poster title was "Combinatorial treatment with antibiotics and the probiotic E. coli Nissle as a strategy to combat biofilms of cooperatively resistant Salmonella Typhimurium".

On the same conference, Luka presented the study on the stress response of Salmonella Typhimurium in heterogenous biofilm communities and the implications for the development of antimicrobial resistance. Potential solutions to this problem were outlined. His poster was titled "General stress response of Salmonella Typhimurium in heterogenous biofilm communities as a reaction to ecological competition: implications for the emergence and spread of antimicrobial resistance and potential solutions".

Announcement 2-4 November 2022

6th Applied Synthetic Biology in Europe (ASBE VI), Edinburgh

Jolien presented a poster (Sharing is caring: Artificially creating different matrix production levels), accompanied by a flash talk, at the ASBE VI in Edinburgh on her efforts to artificially recreate different production levels of biofilm matrix.

At the same conference, Lene presented her work about the importance of probiotic selection and the influence of microbial competition on Salmonella infections in chickens on a poster and flash talk titled: “Angels or demons in the fight against Salmonella : the double edged sword of probiotics in the poultry industry”

Paper 2 November 2022

Origanum vulgare ethanolic extracts as a promising source of compounds with antimicrobial, anti-biofilm, and anti-virulence activity against dental plaque bacteria

In collaboration with the Laboratoire de Microbiologie Appliquée (University of Bejaia), Sybren & Guglielmo published a research paper on the antimicrobial, anti-biofilm and anti-virulence activity of medicinal plant extracts against dental plaque isolates in Frontiers in Microbiology.

Group News 18 October 2022

Funding received: TRA-COAT

We are glad to announce that the MiCA lab obtained a coordinator project (TRA-COAT) in the highly competitive JPIAMR-ACTION Joint Transnational call. This projects focuses on the development and in vivo validation of a novel resistance-proof triggered release antibiofilm coating for orthopaedic implants and vascular grafts.

Announcement 3 September 2022

7th EUROBIOFILMS Conference

Ines presented her work on “elucidating the role of Salmonella biofilm components during infection in C. elegans” during the 2nd Poster/Networking Session of the conference.

During the same Poster/Networking Session, Lynn presented her work regarding “Structure-activity-toxicity optimization of novel biofilm inhibitors”.

Group News 23 August 2022

Why is Salmonella dangerous and so difficult to remove?

Jolien published a blog (in Dutch) elaborating on Salmonella the gut pathogen in layman terms https://www.eoswetenschap.eu/voeding/waarom-salmonella-zo-hardnekkig-en-gevaarlijk.

Announcement 14-19 August 2022

18th International Symposium on Microbial Ecology

Pauline presented a poster, accompanied by a poster pitch, where she described the importance of mutational interactions and antibiotic exposure patterns in designing antibiotic cycling strategies.

Tom presented a poster about the evolutionary stability of yeast aggregation and a talk on how to leverage competition between microbes in new antimicrobial strategies.

Announcement 30 June - 2 July 2022

FEMS conference on Microbiology

Luka held a short lecture on how the competition between Salmonella and the intestinal microbes leads to increased mutation rates and the emergence of resistance. The lecture was titled "Competition between Salmonella and intestinal microbes leads to increased mutation rates and the emergence of resistance".

Paper 1 July 2022

Permissive aggregative group formation favors coexistence between cooperators and defectors in yeast

It is dangerous to go alone! Microorganisms can group up and protect each other from predation and toxic chemicals. Sometimes these groups can evolve further into multicellular organisms. Here, Tom investigated group formation by flocculation in yeast and its potential to evolve multicellularity.

Paper 8 June 2022

Evolution-proof inhibitors of public good cooperation: a screening strategy inspired by social evolution theory

Congratulations to Maries, Mathieu and Bram for their review/methods paper in FEMS Microbiology Reviews! In this paper we provide an extensive evaluation of factors that determine the evolutionary robustness of public good inhibiting strategies. We use the outcome of this analysis to propose a 5-step strategy that allows to identify novel evolution-proof antimicrobial strategies targeting public goods and that takes potential pitfalls already into account in the first stages of screening.

Paper 24 May 2022

Interactions and Their Impact on the Emergence and Spread of Antimicrobial Resistance

Gitta De Wit, Luka Svet, Bram Lories and Hans Steenackers collected their insights on the potential impact of interspecies social behavior on different aspects of resistance development in a review paper in the 76th volume of Annual Review of Microbiology. In this paper, factors are discussed by which interspecies interactions might influence resistance evolution, and a distinction is made between the effect on (a) the emergence of a resistant mutant and (b) the spread of this resistance throughout the population.

Announcement 9-11 May 2022

Coexistence in yeast

Tom presented a poster on how permissive aggregative group formation favors coexistence in yeast at Biofilms10, Liepzig.

Announcement 6 May 2022

Seminar at the University of Zurich

Hans gave a presentation at the university of Zurich on 'cooperation and competition in biofilms as novel targets for antimicrobial treatment'. Thank you to Rolf Kümmerli for the kind invitation!

Paper 6 January 2022

In vitro models for vascular graft coating

Hozan published a systematic review on 'Pre-clinical in vitro Models of Vascular Graft Coating in the Prevention of Vascular Graft Infection: A Systematic Review'.

Group News 21 December 2021

Congratulations Maries!

Maries has successfully defended her PhD on 'inhibiting bacterial cooperation as an evolutionarily robust anti-biofilm strategy'. She will unfortunately be leaving us but we wish her all the best in her future career and life.

Group News 21 December 2021

Funding received: Triple-A-COAT

The MiCA lab had the honor to obtain a coordinator project (Triple-A-COAT) in the highly competitive HORIZON-CL4-2021-RESILIENCE-01 call. This multi-partner project (four research institutions and nine companies) will aim to develop a sustainable, safe and biobased antimicrobial, antifungal and antiviral nanocoating platform.

Group News 18 November 2021

Ines won third place at the ie-net competition 2021

Ines won third prize at the ie-net competition 2021 with her master thesis 'Pro- and Antibiotics, A golden combination against bacterial infections?'.

Group News 1 November 2021

Funding received: Importance of Salmonella biofilm exopolymeric substances (EPS) during gut colonization and invasion — potential of EPS inhibition as an evolutionary robust antimicrobial strategy

Ines received an FWO-SB fellowship funding her PhD project on elucidating the role of EPS components during Salmonella infection.

Group News 1 November 2021

Funding received: Using Experimental Evolution to Optimize Probiotics for their Application in Wound Care

We are proud to announce that Sybren received an FWO-SB fellowship funding his PhD project on experimental evolution of probiotics. In this project, we will explore whether we can use experimental evolution to enhance the anti-pathogenic properties of probiotic lactic acid bacteria against wound-associated pathogens.

Group News 3 October 2021

Mathieu Joos won the student research award

After giving a presentation and facing the challenging questions of the jury and audience, Mathieu was declared the winner of the VBI Student Research Awards 2021 based on his master thesis 'Inhibition of public good production in Salmonella biofilms: An antimicrobial strategy that selects against resistance in vivo?.

Group News 1 September 2021

Thijs received the VLAIO innovation mandate

We are proud to announce that Thijs received the innovation mandate for his project on the valorisation of novel anti-biofilm inhibitors.

Group News July 2021

Lynn received the Baekeland mandate

We are proud to announce that Lynn received the Baekeland mandate for her project on anti-biofilm sheathing for medical devices. For this, she will be working closely together with the start-up company Amynas on their third-generation implants.

Paper July 2021

In vivo models for vascular graft coating

Hozan published a systematic review on 'Pre-clinical in vivo Models of Vascular Graft Coating in the Prevention of Vascular Graft Infection: A Systematic Review.'

Announcement 13 July 2021

Presentation and panel discussion at the Montana Biofilm Science & Technology Meeting

Hans gave a presentation on 'the biofilm matrix as a cooperative and competitive trait' and participated in a panel discussion on 'uncovering the hidden potential and known challenges of the biofilm matrix'.

Group News June 2021

MiCA members in the spotlight in Bio-ingenieus

Curious about what we are doing? Maries and Tom’s work on Salmonella biofilm formation in C. elegans is highlighted in Bio-ingenieus, Journal of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering (KU Leuven) (p. 27).

Group News 20 June 2021

Importance of antibiotic gradients

Pauline presented a poster on the importance of antibiotic gradients and epistasis in drug cycling strategies at the World Microbe Forum.

Paper 18 May 2021

Review on silver-coated vascular grafts

Hozan published a systematic review of preclinical data regarding commercial silver-coated vascular grafts in the Journal of Vascular Surgery.

Paper 21 April 2021

Improved anti-biofilm coating for orthopedic implants

Guglielmo published a paper on an improved 2-aminoimidazole based anti-biofilm coating for orthopedic implants: activity, stability, and in vivo biocompatibility in Frontiers of Microbiology.

Paper 11 February 2021

Aminoimidazoles as potent inhibitors in breweries

Lene and Jolien published a paper on 2-aminoimidazoles as potent inhibitors of contaminating brewery biofilms in Biofouling.

Paper December 2020

Agaric acid reduces Salmonella biofilm

Bram and Tom published an article on how agaric acid reduces Salmonella biofilm formation by inhibiting flagellar motility in Biofilm.

Group News 21 December 2020

Congratulations Bram!

Bram has successfully defended his PhD on competition sensing: molecular mechanisms and therapeutic potential. He will be staying with us at MiCA and will be working as a post-doc on optimization of probiotics via experimental evolution.

Paper 11 December 2020

Pseudomonas as biocontrol agent against Salmonella

Sharon and Bram published a paper on Pseudomonas putida as a potential biocontrol agent against Salmonella Java biofilm formation in the drinking water system of broiler houses in BMC Microbiology. Thank you to Koen De Reu and Marc Heyndrickx at ILVO for the nice collaboration!

Announcement 4 December 2020

Modelling dynamics after antimicrobial treatment

Luka presented a poster on modeling the dynamics of different bacterial populations in various environmental conditions when subjected to antimicrobial treatment at the Virtual Bioinformatics Student Symposium of the RSG Belgium.

Paper October 2020

Phosphate prodrugs as novel antimicrobials

Thijs, David and Xabier co-authored a paper on drug repurposing: phosphate prodrugs of anticancer and antiviral FDA-approved nucleosides as novel antimicrobials in the Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy. Thank you to Michaela Serpi and Fabrizio Pertusati at Cardiff University for the nice collaboration!

Paper 6 August 2020

Contract agent on biofilms and their visualization

Xabier co-authored an article on the study on the effect of contrast agent on biofilms and their visualization in porous substrate using X-ray mu CT in Applied Sciences. This paper is based on a collaboration with Abhishek Shastry and Matthieu Boone at UGent within the frame of the Bioclean project.

Paper 6 April 2020

Biofilm bacteria use stress responses to detect and respond to competitors. Current Biology.

Bram and Stefanie published a paper on 'Biofilm bacteria use stress responses to detect and respond to competitors' in Current Biology. This paper is the result of a collaboration with The Foster Lab at the University of Oxford.

Announcement January 2020

Aminoimidazoles inhibitors in breweries

Lene and Jolien presented their work on 2-aminoimidazoles as potent inhibitors of brewery biofilms at the 25th National Symposium for Applied Biological Sciences.

Paper 9 January 2020

Inhibiting bacterial cooperation is an evolutionarily robust anti-biofilm strategy. Nature Communications.

Lise, Kenny and Maries published a paper on 'Inhibiting bacterial cooperation as an evolutionarily robust antibiofilm strategy' in Nature Communications. This paper is the result of a collaboration with The Foster Lab at the University of Oxford.

Announcement

Talk on UZLeuven vascular symposium

Hans gave a talk on '2-aminoimidazole inhibitors of biofilm formation' at the 29th Vascular Symposium (Leuven, Belgium) organized by the UZ Leuven Department of Vascular Surgery.

This presentation frames within a collaboration with dr. Hozan Mufty (UZ Leuven) part of whose PhD research focuses on testing biofilm inhibitor coatings for vascular devices.

Announcement 5 December 2019

EPS inhibition as robust anti-biofilm strategy

Maries presented her work on inhibiting EPS production as an evolutionarily robust anti-biofilm strategy at the 21st Gut Day Symposium.

Group News November 2019

Jolien goes to the finals!

Jolien is a finalist in the ie-net prices 2019) with her master thesis ‘Do Salmonella bacteria also divide chores?’.

Announcement 23-24 October 2019

Presentation at International Biofilm Summit

Hans presented work on antimicrobial tolerance of brewery biofilms to an audience of food microbiologists and cleaning and disinfection companies at the IBS 2019 conference in Parma, Italy.

Announcement 3-6 September 2019

Three talks at Eurobiofilms - October 2019 - Glasgow

Bram talked about how biofilm bacteria use stress responses to detect and respond to competitors.

Hans gave a talk on inhibiting EPS production as an evolutionarily robust anti-biofilm strategy.

Xabier was awarded a short talk in the Elsevier PRIZE elevator session on responses to competition in Staphylococus aureus – Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms.

www.eurobiofilms2019.com

Announcement 30 April 2019

Influence gradients on resistance development

Pauline presented her work on the influence of antimicrobial gradients on the development of antibiotic resistance at the 5th Workshop on Bacterial and Fungal Biofilms.

Group News 23 January 2019

Bram’s work on competition sensing highlighted in Bio-ingenieus, Journal of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering

'Bacterial competition: what doesn’t kill them makes them stronger'.

Paper 13 December 2018

A covalent imidazole coating to prevent biofilm formation on orthopedic implants

Elien published a paper on 'An antibiofilm coating of 5-aryl-2-aminoimidazole covalently attached to a titanium surface' in J Biomed Mater Res B Appl Biomater. This paper is the result of collaborations in the frame of the FP7 EU project COATIM and the IWT SBO project NEMOA.

Group News 10 October 2018

Student research award for Pauline Brepoels

Pauline Brepoels is finalist of the VBI Student Research Awards 2018 based on her master thesis 'Antibiotic gradients influence the development of antibiotic resistance'.

Paper August 2018

Competitive release enhances antimicrobial tolerance

Ilse published a paper on 'The influence of competitive inter-species interactions on antimicrobial tolerance in multispecies brewery biofilms' in The ISME journal.

Group News June 2018

MICA Lab highlighted in Bio-ingenieus – Journal of the Faculty of Bioscience Engineering

'Oplossingen voor antimicrobiële resistentie: een focus op microbiële gemeenschappen'.

Paper 15 June 2018

Impedimetric fingerprinting of biofilms using multielectrode arrays

Together with imec, we published a paper on 'Impedimetric fingerprinting and structural analysis of isogenic E. coli biofilms using multielectrode arrays' in Sensors and Actuators B: Chemical.

Paper 30 May 2017

Review paper on drug repurposing

Ansie published a review paper on 'Repurposing of nucleoside- and nucleobase-derivative drugs as antibiotics and biofilm inhibitors' in Journal of Antimicrobial Chemotherapy.

Announcement 1-4 March 2017

ASM Meeting report

Bram, Ilse and Hans drafted the meeting report of the American Society for Microbiology Conference on 'Mechanisms of Interbacterial Cooperation and Competition', held in Washington DC, 1 to 4 March 2017.

Announcement 1-4 March 2017

Talk on competition sensing at ASM conference

Hans presented research on 'competition sensing' at the ASM Conference on 'Mechanisms of Interbacterial Cooperation and Competition'. Washington DC, US, 1 to 4 March 2017.

Paper 12 January 2017

Triggered antibiofilm compound release from MOFs

Together with the De Vos Lab, we published a paper on 'Smart Metal–Organic Framework Coatings: Triggered Antibiofilm Compound Release' in ACS Appl. Mater. Interfaces.

Paper 21 October 2016

Fine-tuning anti-biofilm activity of imidazoles

Elien published a paper on 'Modulation of the Substitution Pattern of 5-Aryl-2-Aminoimidazoles Allows Fine-Tuning of Their Antibiofilm Activity Spectrum and Toxicity' in Antimicrob Agents Chemother. This paper is the result of collaborations in the frame of the FP7 EU project COATIM and the IWT SBO project NEMOA.

Announcement 8 September 2016

Keynote talk on biofilm evolution at 3rd BIBR meeting

Hans gave a keynote talk on 'experimental evolution in biofilm populations' at the 3rd meeting of the BIBR group. Liège, Sart Tilman, Belgium, 8 September 2016. This talk was based on our recent paper in FEMS microbiology reviews.

Announcement 4-7 August 2016

Talk on evolution-proof drugs at ASM conference

Lise presented her research on 'evolution-proof drugs' at the 2nd ASM Conference on Experimental Microbial Evolution. Washington DC, US, 4-7 August, 2016.

Group News 23 September 2014

Our art in KU Leuven Campuskrant

Beeldige wetenschap: Pootafdruk van dinosaurus? Rotspartij met mos?

Group News 29 November 2012

The lab on television

The Lab was portrayed in a reportage on innovation in the province of Vlaams-Brabant broadcasted on ROB television in November 2012.

Group News 28 March 2012

Award for best exploitation plan in LRD tech transfer competition

21 teams presented their exploitation plan in the frame of the training course on exploitation of research results and technology and knowledge transfer organized by KU Leuven research and development (2012). The team of Stijn, Hans, Gergo and Annick won one of the 3 awards for their exploitation plan on biofilm inhibitors.