Students from the first year Bsc. Nanobiology have made this final exercise for the course Programming Foundations. They have designed a program in the programming language Phyton that simulates quorum sensing in a bacterial biofilm.
When growing on a surface, many bacteria form a thin closed layer, a so called biofilm consisting of millions of bacteria. Although this strategy obviously provides protection against the environment, it also poses challenges, for example nutrient deficiency at the core of the film.
Bacteria in a biofilm use cell-cell communication to send signals to each other. This exercise focuses on signals from the core of the film to the periphery which tell bacteria in the periphery to release nutrients to allow those to reach the centre of the biofilm.
Calcium ions are commonly involved in signal transduction pathways. Often calcium-mediated signalling is initiated by membrane depolarization and release of stored intracellular calcium ions. Signals are propagated to other bacteria via cell-cell transport of calcium ions and calcium-induced release of stored calcium ions in neighbouring bacteria.
Students that took the effort to add biological relevant creative or extra elements to the final assignment or with outstanding code are listed below, in random order, showing their simulations.
Hereby we present to you the best programs of the year 2026!