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The Bar-Ilan Institute for Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA) is a leading global hub for research, innovation, and collaboration in nanotechnology and advanced materials, offering cutting-edge facilities through the BINA Center for Scientific Equipment. The BINA Center operates two main service divisions: Fabrication and Characterization, in addition to the Project & Industrial Relations Unit and Administration. Operating in full compliance with the ISO 9001 standard, BINA
upholds the highest standards of quality and excellence.

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Fabrication Unit Services

Characterization, MIXAS Services

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Bar Ilan's Institute of Nanotechnology and Advanced Materials (BINA)

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Partnership with PolyX

We’re proud to be part of this winning consortium and to take an active role in the…

Scientific Instrument

SEM (Quanta)

Low-vacuum imagingSEM system capable of imaging in low vacuum and humid…

Research Fields

Cleantech

Cleantech is a rapidly evolving field encompassing a diverse range of products…

Innovative Research

From Lab to Market: The Zinc–Air Challenge

Academic Staff

Prof. Ehud Banin

Bacterial Biofilms

Biofilms are microbial communities embedded in a self-produced extracellular polymeric matrix. It is now well recognized that cells undergo profound changes in the transition from free-living to matrix-embedded (biofilm) communities. An important characteristic of microbial biofilms is their innate resistance to immune system- and antibiotic-killing. This has made microbial biofilms a common and difficult-to-treat cause of medical infections. Several chronic infections have been shown to be mediated by biofilms such as the respiratory infections caused by Pseudomonas aeruginosa in the cystic fibrosis (CF) lung and Staphylococcal lesions in endocarditis. Biofilms are also a major cause of infections associated with medical implants mainly by Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus aureus, and P. aeruginosa. It has been estimated that 65% of the bacterial infections treated in hospitals are caused by bacterial biofilms. Thus, there is an urgent need to discover innovative treatments for biofilm-associated infections. The current understanding of how biofilms develop and how they acquire increased resistance is still in its initial stages. Our research focuses on understanding the basic aspects of the signals and processes involved in biofilm development with a goal of finding new methods of treating biofilm-related infections. The aims are:

1) To characterize how biofilms develop, with a focus on the role of iron as a signal in biofilm development.

2) To understand the mechanisms by which biofilms obtain increased resistance to antimicrobial therapy.

3) To understand the role of inter- and intra-species cell-cell communication in mixed species biofilm interactions.

4) To discover novel compounds that effectively eradicate biofilms.

We implement an array of physiological, biochemical, and genetic tools combined with novel technologies that allow controlled and reproducible biofilm growth to characterize bacterial biofilms and compare them to the non-biofilm communities.

BINA