Impact of simulated microgravity on potable water bacterial biofilm formation

All human habitation in space will take place in a non-sterile environment and the multispecies bacterial biofilms in the drinking water are an important source of bacteria to which all astronauts are exposed. This constant exposure to potential bacterial pathogens and the additional roles of biofilms in material corrosion and chemical processes make it is imperative that we improve our understanding of these co-habitants on our space-going vessels.

This proposal addresses the Biology of the Built Environment topic, under the Space Biology Program within the Space Life and Physical Sciences Research and Applications (SLPSRA) directorate. The call notes a particular interest in relation to this topic on determining the impact of simulated microgravity on mixed microbial biofilms and community interactions. Our NASA-related work has focused on studying community interactions driving biofilm formation and physiology by members of the bacterial biofilm present in the Potable Water Reclamation System of the International Space Station. These species are a model of the ISS community and also model drinking water communities in general, including those destined for future space flights, as these species are common globally in municipal water systems.

During the course of our previous NASA EPSCoR-funded research, a six-member bacterial community derived from the ISS potable water reclamation system was characterized and used as a model community to understand biofilm assembly in potable water. This work led to three major findings relevant to this proposal: (i) ISS water system biofilm formation is robust to community composition, (ii) Determination of the species interaction network governing biofilm assembly, (iii) Species interactions suppress pathogen survival.

This proposal will follow up on the initial findings to achieve two goals: (1) Measure the impact of low-shear simulated microgravity on the community interactions and biofilm formation network in the model ISS biofilm community (2) Determine if the ability of ISS biofilm members to limit bacterial pathogen growth and invasion of the community continues in low-shear simulated microgravity

This is a mature technology (TRL 7+) — the realistic path in is usually NASA's Technology Transfer Program: licensing an existing NASA patent, or a Space Act Agreement to use NASA facilities/expertise directly. NASA also runs a startup licensing program with no upfront fee for companies formed to commercialize a specific NASA technology.

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