TY - JOUR A1 - Schwibbert, Karin A1 - Richter, Anja A1 - Krüger, Jörg A1 - Bonse, Jörn T1 - Laser-Textured Surfaces: A Way to Control Biofilm Formation? N2 - Bacterial biofilms pose serious problems in medical and industrial settings. One of the major societal challenges lies in the increasing resistance of bacteria against biocides used in antimicrobial treatments, e.g., via overabundant use in medicine, industry, and agriculture or cleaning and disinfection in private households. Hence, new efficient bacteria-repellent strategies avoiding the use of biocides are strongly desired. One promising route to achieve bacteria-repellent surfaces lies in the contactless and aseptic large-area laser-processing of technical surfaces. Tailored surface textures, enabled by different laser-processing strategies that result in topographic scales ranging from nanometers to micrometers may provide a solution to this challenge. This article presents a current state-of-the-art review of laser-surface subtractive texturing approaches for controlling the biofilm formation for different bacterial strains and in different environments. Based on specific properties of bacteria and laser-processed surfaces, the challenges of anti-microbial surface designs are discussed, and future directions will be outlined. KW - Antibacterial surfaces KW - Biofilms KW - Laser processing KW - Laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) KW - Microbial adhesions PY - 2023 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-588260 DO - https://doi.org/10.1002/lpor.202300753 SN - 1863-8899 SP - 1 EP - 41 PB - Wiley-VCH GmbH CY - Weinheim AN - OPUS4-58826 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Schwibbert, Karin A1 - de Eulate Pérez, Elisa García A1 - Wen, Keqing A1 - Voss, Heike A1 - Thiele, Dorothea A1 - Richter, Anja M. A1 - Bonse, Jörn T1 - Escherichia coli repellence via laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) on titanium: Critical role of biofilm-associated gene expression N2 - The inconsistency in the observed bacteria-repellent effects of laser-induced surface textures remains a subject of scientific debates. With E. coli TG1 as test strain, we performed biofilm formation assays on ultrashort pulse laser textured titanium. Samples covered with low spatial frequency LIPSS (LSFL) of periods around 750 nm or with high spatial frequency LIPSS (HSFL) featuring smaller periods around 100 nm were processed on polished samples. While LSFL significantly reduce the number of adhering bacteria compared to the polished reference, HSFL do not. Simultaneously, we concentrate our study on bacterial strategies employed for biofilm formation, that is the transcription of the biofilm-associated genes csgB, involved in primary adhesion to a surface, and wza, participating in biofilm maturation. Promoter regions of these genes were cloned into a promotor probe plasmid with the green fluorescent protein GFP+ as reporter and transferred into the test strain. As indicated by the fluorescence intensity of the reporter protein, among the bacteria colonizing LSFL-covered areas, a markedly higher proportion of cells transcribing csgB or wza were detected, compared to the bacterial populations colonizing the polished or HSFL-covered areas. To our knowledge, this is the first study indicating that the antifouling effect of LSFL topographies can be counteracted when bacteria activate biofilm-associated genes. KW - Laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) KW - Titanium KW - Biofilm KW - Antifouling KW - Gene expression KW - Fluorescence microscopy PY - 2026 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-655572 DO - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apsusc.2026.166363 SN - 0169-4332 VL - 730 SP - 1 EP - 9 PB - Elsevier B.V. AN - OPUS4-65557 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER - TY - JOUR A1 - Richter, Anja A1 - Buchberger, G. A1 - Stifter, D. A1 - Duchoslav, J. A1 - Hertwig, Andreas A1 - Bonse, Jörn A1 - Heitz, J. A1 - Schwibbert, Karin T1 - Spatial Period of Laser-Induced Surface Nanoripples on PET Determines Escherichia coli Repellence N2 - Bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation on surfaces are associated with persistent microbial contamination, biofouling, and the emergence of resistance, thus, calling for new strategies to impede bacterial surface colonization. Using ns-UV laser treatment (wavelength 248 nm and a pulse duration of 20 ns), laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) featuring different submicrometric periods ranging from ~210 to ~610 nm were processed on commercial poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) foils. Bacterial adhesion tests revealed that these nanorippled surfaces exhibit a repellence for E. coli that decisively depends on the spatial periods of the LIPSS with the strongest reduction (~91%) in cell adhesion observed for LIPSS periods of 214 nm. Although chemical and structural analyses indicated a moderate laser-induced surface oxidation, a significant influence on the bacterial adhesion was ruled out. Scanning electron microscopy and additional biofilm studies using a pili-deficient E. coli TG1 strain revealed the role of extracellular appendages in the bacterial repellence observed here. KW - Laser-induced periodic surface structures (LIPSS) KW - Laser processing KW - Polyethylene terephthalate KW - Biofilm formation KW - Cell appendages KW - Biomimetic KW - F pili PY - 2021 UR - https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:kobv:b43-537431 DO - https://doi.org/10.3390/nano11113000 VL - 11 IS - 11 SP - 3000 PB - MDPI AN - OPUS4-53743 LA - eng AD - Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und -pruefung (BAM), Berlin, Germany ER -