Effect of Periodic Disinfection on Persisters in a One-Dimensional Biofilm Model

It is well known that disinfection methods that successfully kill suspended bacterial populations often fail to eliminate bacterial biofilms. Recent efforts to understand biofilm survival have focused on the existence of small, but very tolerant, subsets of the bacterial population termed persisters. In this investigation, we analyze a mathematical model of disinfection that consists of a susceptible-persister population system embedded within a growing domain. This system is coupled to a reaction-diffusion system governing the antibiotic and nutrient.