By Ulrike Granögger

Recent years have produced growing understanding and interest in biofilms and the microorganisms they contain. This week’s interview in our Future Science Series introduces biofilms expert Joshua Leisk, a researcher from Australia, who has developed a revolutionary disease model based on the pathogenicity of certain biofilms in the body.

Biofilms form naturally where there is moisture, that is, in any aqueous system when microorganisms settle on existing interfaces. Such interfaces exist both between solid and liquid surfaces or at liquid-liquid and liquid-gas interfaces. In the human body they will form, for example, in the moisture of the respiratory system and the digestive tract, inside of blood vessels, and even in or surrounding the “wetware” of our brains. Dental plaque, too, is biofilm forming on teeth. In many ways, biofilms can also be seen as live hydrogels.

Many biofilms forming in the body are beneficial to the “host,” but they can also harbor “parasitic” or pathogenic microorganisms that go undetected by the immune system. This is when they become dangerous.

Shielded by the slimy polymeric matrix of biofilm sticking to the vast inner surface areas of the body, bacteria, fungi, viruses, and other parasitic microbes can remain dormant or proliferate unseen to the organism. Latent infections ensue. Furthermore, the organisms inside the biofilms feed on the host’s nutrients, often depleting the body of vital minerals and metals needed for cell signaling, hormones, and regulating pathways that require elements such as zinc, selenium, magnesium, iron, and several other metals. A vicious cycle begins as mineral transporters such as ferroportin are affected, and mere mineral supplementation will not work anymore. Instead, the added minerals may end up being deposited in the brain or the liver, while other important cell functions are aborted.

This is a model for the origin of chronic diseases—such as ME/CFS (myalgic encephalomyelitis/chronic fatigue syndrome), polyarthritis, and “long Covid”—that often remain unexplained and even undetected for long periods of time. Over 50% of the U.S. population has a chronic condition!

Understanding the nature of biofilms may be one key to deciphering the “Great Poisoning” that has been going on for decades from aerosol spraying, food and water degradation, and bioweapons in various shapes and forms.

This interview provides a first understanding of the topicality and complexity of “parasitic” biofilms and calls for greater awareness and research of the topic.