Oliveira Lab Publishes Review on Engineered Bacterial Biofilms in Trends in Biotechnology

We are pleased to share that our review article, “Engineered bacterial biofilms for biotechnological applications,” is now available online in Trends in Biotechnology.

This review highlights how engineered bacterial biofilms can be developed as programmable living platforms for biotechnology. The article discusses how biofilm-associated traits, including adhesion, extracellular matrix formation, spatial organization, and stress tolerance, can be repurposed for applications in bioproduction, biosensing, bioremediation, agriculture, therapeutic delivery, and engineered living materials.

The paper also introduces a life cycle-based engineering framework for engineered bacterial biofilms, organized into three major phases: preformation, formation, and postformation. This framework connects chassis selection, genetic programming, material interfaces, biofilm maturation, functional testing, optimization, and deployment.

This work was authored by Nona Hashemi, Karen O. Osiro, Octavio L. Franco, and Samuel M. D. Oliveira.

Article link: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S016777992600243X

Citation: Hashemi, N., Osiro, K. O., Franco, O. L., & Oliveira, S. M. D. (2026). Engineered bacterial biofilms for biotechnological applications. Trends in Biotechnology. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tibtech.2026.06.003