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Most bacterial infections — including those in our ears or sinuses — start with biofilms. They are small clusters of bacteria that stick to surfaces and wrap themselves in a protective layer of slime. That shield helps them resist antibiotics and even our own immune system.

Biofilms can also wreak havoc in the oil fields and at other industrial sites because they can destroy metal pipes and other infrastructure.

“It’s literally a trillion-dollar global problem,” explains , BSc'02, BSc'03, PhD'08, professor of  in the .

As a microbiologist and biochemist, Harrison studies the biofilms that cause human diseases — and notes they may not always deserve the bad rep.

“Biofilms are present in our bodies,” he explains. “The communities of microbes in your gut form biofilm-like structures that are part of a healthy microbiota and help protect you from diseases. Scientists are still learning how these biofilms work, and there’s a lot we don’t yet understand about the roles they play in keeping us healthy. So, there’s a lot to be learned about biofilms and what they do.”

Harrison and a team of University of Calgary researchers will do exactly that — learn more about biofilms — after he received $5.8 million from the  (CFI) Innovation Fund to create the Canadian Centre for Biofilm Research (CCBR), the only one of its kind in the country.

The funding provides researchers with the equipment to deliver the high-impact results needed to strengthen the country’s innovation capacity, providing lasting benefits for Canadians and building economic resilience.

 

State-of-the-art research lab

The new state-of-the-art biofilm research lab will include a microbial molecular biology and genome-editing core and a suite of microscopes.

“We want to use biofilms and our knowledge about biofilms to find new ways to beat infections, like drug-resistant infections, without necessarily needing a new antibiotic,” says Harrison.

“There’s a lot of attention out there on this problem of antibiotic resistance. It’s probably one of the biggest health threats of the 21st century and claims millions of lives a year, with a life lost every 30 seconds to antibiotic resistance globally. It’s a big, big problem.”

A  by a global team of scientists in September 2024 shows antibiotic resistance is escalating rapidly. In 2021, there were about 4.71 million deaths associated with bacterial antimicrobial resistance —&�Բ�����;and 1.14 million directly caused by antibiotic resistance.

Builds on a 50-year legacy at UCalgary

The CCBR will build on a legacy of biofilm microbiology at UCalgary that goes back to the 1970s.

“Back in the day before biofilm microbiology was even a thing, the person who made big advances in the field was ,” says Harrison, noting Costerton, PhD, is known as the founding father of the field and had multiple breakthroughs. “He was (at UCalgary) right through the 1970s and 1980s. He retired before I was even a student here.”

Harrison says Costerton’s legacy remains.

“He trained so many people here. Even today, dozens of faculty members here at UCalgary work on biofilm microbiology in some capacity,” Harrison says.

The new lab will be used by those scientists, as well as engineers and clinicians from several other faculties and departments.

“It’s an amazingly diverse group of people we work with —&�Բ�����;everybody from physicists who are on the team to try to help us understand how bacterial communities self-assemble, to psychologists who are working with us to determine how the bacteria present in those communities can affect how our brain functions,” says Harrison.

UCalgary researchers are creating impact by working together on some of the world’s most complex challenges related to real-world problems, including health.