The Biofilmcenter (BFC) at the Department of Microbiology, Infectious Disease, and Immunology at CHAR is a research group for basic and applied research of microbial infections, in particular biofilm-associated diseases. BFC bridges the gap between basic sciences and clinical diagnostic applications. It is one of the most important German research institutions in the field, training highly skilled specialists in health and scientific research. In the last five years BFC was involved, as coordinator or partner, in many national or international research projects, in high interest areas (innovative anti-biofilm drugs or materials, nanomedicine, antimicrobial resistance, emerging infectious diseases, high-end microscopy and digital image analysis, etc.). This includes for example two ZIM projects of the German Federal Ministry of Economic Affairs and Energy, a DFG project for Tick-borne relapsing fever in the Middle East, several research projects with the Hospital of the German Armed Forces in Berlin, and several industry-sponsored research projects on novel antimicrobial agents and antibiofilm treatment. The results of the research were published in a significant number of high-ranking scientific papers in well-known national/ international journals or presented at prestigious scientific conferences. This includes invitations as speaker at the ECCMID 2019 (Amsterdam), Gordon Conference ‘Biology of Spirochetes (2000, 2006, 2012) and discussion leader (2008, 2018) as well as keynote lectures (SGM, Society for General Microbiology Meeting UK, 2015, Galway, Ireland; eCM Bone & Implant Infection Meeting, 2015, Davos, Switzerland; 15th Medical Biodefense Conference, 2016, Munich, Germany).
List of the most relevant references and projects
Publications
Greve D, Moter A, Kleinschmidt MC, Pfäfflin F, Stegemann MS, Kursawe L, Grubitzsch H, Falk V, Kikhney J. Rothia aeria and Rothia dentocariosa as biofilm builders in infective endocarditis. Int J Med Microbiol. 2021 Feb;311(2):151478. doi: 10.1016/j.ijmm.2021.151478. Epub 2021 Feb 6. PMID: 33581548 Free article.
Kikhney J, Moter A. Quality Control in Diagnostic Fluorescence In Situ Hybridization (FISH) in Microbiology. Methods Mol Biol. 2021;2246:301-316. doi: 10.1007/978-1-0716-1115-9_20. PMID: 33576998
Maurer SM, Kursawe L, Rahm S, Prinz J, Zinkernagel AS, Moter A, Kuster SP, Zbinden R, Zingg PO, Achermann Y. Cutibacterium avidum resists surgical skin antisepsis in the groin-a potential risk factor for periprosthetic joint infection: a quality control study. Antimicrob Resist Infect Control. 2021 Feb 1;10(1):27. doi: 10.1186/s13756-021-00883-1. PMID: 33522957 Free PMC article.
Rupprecht T, Moter A, Wiessener A, Reutershan J, Lang-Schwarz K, Vieth M, Rupprecht C, Wagner R, Bollinger T. Spread of Multidrug-Resistant Bacteria by Moth Flies from Hospital Waste Water System. Emerg Infect Dis. 2020 Aug;26(8):1893-1898. doi: 10.3201/eid2608.190750. PMID: 32687034 Free PMC article.
Lauten A, Martinović M, Kursawe L, Kikhney J, Affeld K, Kertzscher U, Falk V, Moter A. Bacterial biofilms in infective endocarditis: an in vitro model to investigate emerging technologies of antimicrobial cardiovascular device coatings. Clin Res Cardiol. 2021 Mar;110(3):323-331. doi: 10.1007/s00392-020-01669-y. Epub 2020 May 22. PMID: 32444905 Free PMC article.
Sutrave S, Kikhney J, Schmidt J, Petrich A, Wiessner A, Kursawe L, Gebhardt M, Kertzscher U, Gabel G, Goubergrits L, Affeld K, Moter A. Effect of daptomycin and vancomycin on Staphylococcus epidermidis biofilms: An in vitro assessment using fluorescence in situ hybridization. PLoS One. 2019 Aug 27;14(8):e0221786. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0221786. eCollection 2019.
Ramstedt M, Ribeiro IAC, Bujdakova H, Mergulhão FJM, Jordao L, Thomsen P, Alm M, Burmølle M, Vladkova T, Can F, Reches M, Riool M, Barros A, Reis RL, Meaurio E, Kikhney J, Moter A, Zaat SAJ, Sjollema J. Evaluating Efficacy of Antimicrobial and Antifouling Materials for Urinary Tract Medical Devices: Challenges and Recommendations. Macromol Biosci. 2019 May;19(5):e1800384. doi: 10.1002/mabi.201800384. Epub 2019 Mar 18. PMID: 30884146 Review.
Moter A, Janneck M, Wolters M, Iking-Konert C, Wiessner A, Loddenkemper C, Hartleben B, Lütgehetmann M, Schmidt J, Langbehn U, Janssen S, Geelhaar-Karsch A, Schneider T, Moos V, Rohde H, Kikhney J, Wiech T. Potential Role for Urine Polymerase Chain Reaction in the Diagnosis of Whipple’s Disease. Clin Infect Dis. 2019 Mar 19;68(7):1089-1097. doi: 10.1093/cid/ciy664. PMID: 30351371 Free PMC article.
Schoenrath F, Kikhney J, Kursawe L, Schoenrath K, Hajduczenia MM, Schulze J, Potapov E, Krabatsch T, Kaufmann F, Falk V, Moter A. Life on the driveline: Molecular detection and fluorescence in situ hybridization-based visualization of microbial species in patients with left ventricular assist devices. J Heart Lung Transplant. 2018 Jan;37(1):163-166. doi: 10.1016/j.healun.2017.09.023. Epub 2017 Sep 30. PMID: 29056458 No abstract available.
Stewart PS, Zhang T, Xu R, Pitts B, Walters MC, Roe F, Kikhney J, Moter A. Reaction-diffusion theory explains hypoxia and heterogeneous growth within microbial biofilms associated with chronic infections. NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes. 2016 Jun 22;2:16012. doi: 10.1038/npjbiofilms.2016.12. eCollection 2016. PMID: 28721248 Free PMC article.
Domestic and international projects
German Federal Ministry for Economy and Energy (ESF)
EXIST- Research Transfer from Science into Application: Biofilm (2015 – 2017)
Robert Koch-Institute
German Consiliary Laboratory for Tropheryma whipplei (2006 – 2022)
German Foundation for Cardiovascular Research
Rusche-Award
Development of a pulsatile in vitro incubator model for infective endocarditis (2018)
German Federal Ministry for Education and Research – Photonics (BMBF)
iSOLID – Integrated Solution for Infection Detection (2017 – 2020)
European Regional Development Fund (EFRE)
Project: Biofilm-Testing platform (2019-20222)
Volkswagen Foundation
Understanding Drug Resistance: Experimental Evolution (2019 – 2022)
Horizon 2020 | CORDIS | European Commission
GROWTH Project: Research and Training in Early Life Nutrition to Prevent Disease (2019-2024)
MoKi Analytics is a Start-up company from Charité founded in 2017 by Dr. Judith Kikhney and Professor Annette Moter. MoKi Analytics provides services and products for the molecular and microscopic detection of microorganisms, in particular microbial biofilms. The company is experienced in all aspects of preclinical validation and technology development applicable to the proposed Twinning project. In the current project, MoKi will provide valuable input for the development of the medium and long-term vision for combating and evaluation of mixed biofilms. Moreover, their expertise from industry will be essential for capacity building in the field of IPR protection, business development, valorisation, and personnel development. Experts from MoKi on these topics will be an integrative part of the talent development program, especially during the Training schools “Taking charge of your career” with coaching workshops and FISH training school, and Workshop “Translational knowledge; From research to enterprises”.
