Microbiology & Materials outreach activities

Members of the bioMEG and Oral Microbiology groups have taken part in several outreach activities designed to engage local communities with their research. Events included the Bristol City Centre Family Weekend as part of the week-long Festival of Nature, the Barton Hill Family Day, and the Bristol FUTURES event, which was held at the iconic SS Great Britain. Through these events, the team were able to showcase their research to local families, members of the Hillfields community in east Bristol, and people working for and supported by Wecil, an organisation that supports disabled people to live independently.

Giant toothbrushes/mouths and the chance to see oral microbes under a microscope were used to motivate people to brush twice a day, whilst the consequences of poor oral hygiene were highlighted with a hands-on ‘blast-a-biofilm’ activity involving water pistols, mini microbes and hair gel - messy but fun! This segued perfectly into demonstrations on how dental implant success could be improved by engineering materials that mimic antibacterial nanostructures found by nature, with water balloon ‘bacteria’ and giant spikes used to represent how nanopillars from cicada wings can kill bacteria.