Skip to navigation Skip to content

Hutton support for #BiofilmAware awareness campaign

Biofilms are at the heart of a new awareness campaign
"The #BiofilmAware campaign will illustrate the issues and benefits that different biofilms impart on society and how research in the area presents new opportunities to manage detrimental or better utilise beneficial biofilms."

The James Hutton Institute is pleased to support the National Biofilms Innovation Centre's #BiofilmAware campaign, which aims to raise awareness of biofilms and their importance for our everyday lives.

Biofilms are well known to a number of research and development disciplines, but not to the general public. What they are, how they are formed and how they impact our world, generally is still a mystery to those outside the scientific community. Through a blend of content, events and outreach activities #BiofilmAware will work to raise awareness of NBIC and its research, and the many societal and economic impacts of biofilms. A highlight of the campaign will be the introduction of the UK’s first #BiofilmWeek, to be held in July 2021.

The Innovation Knowledge Centre, funded by the BBSRC, Innovate UK and the Hartree Centre, is the UK’s hub for accessing biofilm expertise, capability, science and innovation, and connects biofilm specialists across the UK, providing a mechanism for industrial partners to explore their unmet needs with researchers to achieve breakthrough innovation. The centre also supports the development of technologies to prevent, detect, manage and engineer biofilms through translational Proof of Concept funding.   

Dr Mark Richardson, NBIC CEO, said: “A key part of NBIC’s role is Public Engagement and Outreach. At a time when each one of us has become acutely aware of the fragility of our relationship with the natural world, then as well as progressing the delivery of innovations, this is a vital activity for us to undertake. This campaign is geared to communicate the impact of biofilms to society and the general public. It will help us to understand public concerns and allow us to communicate the importance of controlling and exploiting microbial communities”.

Professor Nicola Stanley-Wall, University of Dundee, added: “While the word “biofilm” may be unfamiliar, the impact they have on everyday life will not be. Biofilms are part of us, in the form of dental plaque. They also drive the generation of clean water in sewage, processing plants and increasing the yield of crops. The #BiofilmAware campaign is important, as it will help shine a light on both the remarkable and devastating consequences of biofilm formation”.

Dr Andrew Love, a research leader at the James Hutton Institute's Cell and Molecular Sciences department, commented: "Microbes often release 'glues' and other components to bind microbial communities together while often helping to protect them from physical and chemical attack; this constitutes a biofilm. Biofilms exist in many different forms and some can have positive societal impacts, including improved crop growth, enhanced waste treatment and industrial processes, but other types may have profoundly negative effects, for example, they may cause disease.

"The NBIC #BiofilmAware campaign will illustrate the issues and benefits that different biofilms impart on society and how research in the area presents new opportunities to manage detrimental or better utilise beneficial biofilms."

Press and media enquiries: 

Bernardo Rodriguez-Salcedo, Media Manager, Tel: +44 (0)1224 395089 (direct line), +44 (0)344 928 5428 (switchboard) or +44 (0)7791 193918 (mobile).


Printed from /news/hutton-support-biofilmaware-awareness-campaign on 29/03/24 07:34:32 AM

The James Hutton Research Institute is the result of the merger in April 2011 of MLURI and SCRI. This merger formed a new powerhouse for research into food, land use, and climate change.