Workshop on colloidal transport

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Biofilms are communities of bacteria embedded in a self-secreted extracellular polymeric matrix. From a physics perspective, they can be viewed as living soft materials: structurally heterogeneous polymer networks whose permeability, mechanical response, and transport properties evolve over time and depend on physicochemical conditions. These coupled mechanical and transport processes are central to biofilm persistence in natural and engineered environments, yet a predictive physical framework linking microstructure, deformation, and transport across scales is still lacking. In this seminar, I will present a polymer-network framework for biofilm mechanics and transport that draws explicit analogies with soft-matter physics, linking network structure to effective permeability and mechanical response. Using microfluidic platforms combined with in situ imaging and modelling, we probe biofilm behaviour under controlled shear and chemical conditions, revealing how flow-induced deformation and biochemical composition feed back on transport, clogging dynamics, and mechanical stability. Together, these results position biofilms as adaptive living materials whose properties are dynamically regulated by their internal structure and mechanical state.

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