Hosted by: Aaron Rossini and Frederic Perras

Title: Molecular-scale mapping of the biofilm matrix

Abstract:

Biofilm formation protects bacteria from antibiotic treatment and host immune responses, making biofilm infections difficult to treat. Within biofilms, bacterial cells are entangled in a self-produced extracellular matrix that often includes exopolysaccharides and high molecular weight proteins. Molecular-level descriptions of biofilm matrices have been challenging to attain due to their complex nature and lack of solubility and crystallinity. We seek to answer: What are the molecular biophysical principles of biofilm assembly? Since this question spans several scales—multicellular to atomic—we are developing multidisciplinary approaches that integrate microbiological methods with physical chemistry tools including microscopy and solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR).Our research is anticipated to lead to improved models to study biofilms, which will be useful in the development of anti-biofilm therapeutics. Additionally, the approaches that we develop will be useful for studying other complex materials.

Bio:

Courtney Reichhardt graduated from Montana State University with a BS in Chemistry in 2010. She then attended Stanford University where she joined Lynette Cegelski’s laboratory in the Department of Chemistry. There she pioneered the development of a novel approach that integrates solid-state NMR and electron microscopy analyses to quantitate the composition of biofilms. Her graduate research was supported by the Althouse Family Stanford Graduate Fellowship, and she earned her PhD in Chemistry in 2016.

To expand her skill set, Courtney opted to do her postdoctoral training in the Department of Microbiology at the University of Washington with Matthew Parsek. There she studied the protective intermolecular interactions in the biofilm matrix of the pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa that allow for persistence in environments like those that it encounters during chronic cystic fibrosis lung infections. Her postdoctoral research was supported by several fellowships, and she was awarded two postdoc-to-faculty transition fellowships: a K99/R00 “Pathway to Independence” Award from the NIH (NIGMS) and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation’s Postdoc-to-Faculty Award.

Courtney joined the Department of Chemistry at Washington University as an Assistant Professor in 2021. Her research program leverages her unique multidisciplinary training to answer important questions about the molecular biophysical principles of biofilm assembly