AR-BioClear: Using Physical Approaches to Weaken Bacterial Biofilms
CNRS Innovation has awarded funding to support the development of AR-BioClear, a new project led by Jelena Kolosnjaj-Tabi at the Institute of Pharmacology and Structural Biology. The project will be carried out in collaboration with Etienne Dague at LAAS-CNRS, Hedia Marrakchi at IPBS, and Slavko Kralj at the Jožef Stefan Institute in Slovenia.
AR-BioClear aims to explore innovative physical approaches to combat bacterial biofilms: highly organized microbial communities that display strong tolerance to antimicrobial treatments.
Biofilms are involved in many persistent infections and represent a major public health challenge, particularly in the context of antimicrobial resistance. Within these complex structures, bacteria are protected by a dense extracellular matrix that limits the penetration and efficacy of conventional treatments, making them difficult to eradicate.
The project will investigate new strategies to weaken or disrupt these protective bacterial environments and thereby improve treatment efficacy. By combining expertise in biophysics, microbiology and nanotechnology, AR-BioClear will examine how externally applied physical stimuli can be used to target biofilm integrity and bacterial persistence.
Beyond its potential biomedical applications, the project contributes to broader efforts to address the growing global challenge of antimicrobial resistance.
