Bacterial biofilms can easily form on implant surfaces and cause infections that can lead to serious complications. Preventing biofilm formation on implant surfaces is, therefore, of great importance to increase implant safety. To combat biofilms that have already formed, it is also essential to work on the development of new therapeutic antimicrobial agents. In vitro experiments to evaluate new antimicrobial implant surfaces and agents can be very time-consuming, resource-intensive and costly, as various biological, environmental and mechanical factors have to be taken into account.
The aim of this project is therefore to develop a numerical method to simulate the formation of implant-associated biofilms in the presence of antimicrobial agents on the implant surface.
Numerical simulation can serve as an upstream in silico experiment to provide predictions and hypotheses (e.g. regarding surface properties, cell-cell interactions, flow conditions or drug transport), before validating these results using in vitro experiments. In this project, biofilms are defined on the microscale using a continuum mechanical description. The effects of antimicrobial agents on biofilm degradation will be included in the models developed