Dr Daniel Smaje recently completed his PhD in the Department of Biochemistry, Cell and Systems Biology. Here Daniel discusses his research into biofilm development and their responses to antibiotic treatment.
Your name and your area of research
My name is Daniel Smaje, and I've just completed my PhD in Dr Howbeer Muhamad Ali’s research group at the Centre for Metabolomics Research (CMR). My area of research is using metabolic fingerprinting techniques to investigate Salmonella biofilms, aggregated communities of microbes that are typically highly antibiotic resistant. During my project we've focused on characterising biofilm responses to antibiotic treatment and studying biofilm development.
What was the title of your first paper and who was it submitted to?
The title of my first paper is ‘Investigating Salmonella biofilm responses to antibiotic treatment using optical photothermal infrared spectroscopy’ and it has been published in npj. Communications Biology. View the paper.
How would you explain what this paper is about to your grandparents?
This paper was focused on understanding how Salmonella biofilms respond to antibiotic treatment. Biofilms are large communities of bacteria that stick to surfaces and are very difficult to remove. When Salmonella forms biofilms it can live for a long time in a patient’s gut, causing the disease to spread around. In this paper we wanted to understand how bacteria in different areas within the biofilm react to antibiotic treatment, as biofilms can be large enough that the bacteria throughout behave in quite different ways.
We used a technique called optical photothermal infrared spectroscopy, or O-PTIR spectroscopy. We fed the biofilms with labelled nutrients and took images with O-PTIR that could tell us where the bacteria had actively used these labelled nutrients. This showed us that only bacteria around the edges of the biofilm were active, while bacteria in the centre were inactive and didn’t use the nutrients. We then treated the biofilm with a drug and saw that this affected the bacteria, but that some bacteria at the surface of the biofilm remained active. This is important as it showed that drug treatment alone could not kill all bacteria in the biofilm.
What was the most significant thing for you about that paper?
This was the first time that O-PTIR spectroscopy was used in conjunction with 13C isotope probing to study biofilm metabolism, and this allowed us to study how biofilms respond to drug treatment without using fluorescent markers. This is exciting as it has potential applications for testing and designing drugs and treatments that are more effective against biofilm infections.
What advice would you give to others about submitting their first paper?
My advice is to be patient and start as early as possible – writing can take longer than you expect! I would also advise taking the opportunity to use feedback from peers and reviewers to improve the paper - it is all part of the process.