Executive Summary : | Bacteria often colonize solid surfaces in the form of thin biofilms, which release extracellular matrix to protect them from external threats and trigger enhanced motility and pathogenicity. These biofilms can grow in a sessile form or as highly motile swarms depending on the availability of nutrients. Understanding biofilm growth is crucial for developing efficient antimicrobial strategies and treating infections like cystic fibrosis, dental plaque, and medical implants. The proposal aims to develop a comprehensive thin-film model for biofilm growth, exploiting the length-scale separation between its height and lateral extent. This semi-analytical modeling approach will provide deeper physical insights into the spatiotemporal evolution of biofilms, considering physics related to nutrient uptake, extracellular matrix formation, osmotic pressure-driven convection, substrate affinity, and surface tension gradient-driven Marangoni flow. The study will focus on elucidating the role of physico-chemical properties of the underlying solid substrate, wettability, contact line dynamics, Marangoni, and osmotic flow on biofilm growth. An accurate prediction of the transition from sessile to motile swarming states of microbial biofilms is also envisaged. A successful thin-film model could have significant implications for biomedical applications and potentially lead to novel antimicrobial strategies. |