The increasing challenge of solving environmental problems is seeing the emergence of new discipline, one that integrates engineering and the life sciences into the field of environmental engineering and biotechnology. There is a prominent role in this emerging discipline for environmental microbiology, asmicrobial communities and biofilms are often the key biological drivers of water, environmental and industrial systems. Insights into structural and functional diversity of such communities, using the new molecular toolboxes of environmental microbiology, will translate into novel, environmentally benign and effective control measures for both establishing and removing biofilms. Researchers at the CMB areincreasingly sought after for their multidisciplinary expertise in this area at both the laboratory and pilot-scale levels. The CMB has strengths in controlling both biofilm formation, critical to bioremediation and granulation in wastewater treatment, and biofilm disruption or prevention, in for example controlling membrane biofouling in water production and purification.

For any queries on this project please contact Dr. Diane McDougald