Colloquium: Klebsiella Pneumoniae Flocculation Dynamics

2006-02-09

4:10 pm, Neill Hall 5W

D.M. Bortz

Abstract The bacterial pathogen Klebsiella pneumoniae is a leading cause of hospital-acquired pneumonia and urinary tract infections. It is theorized that a common infection pathway is via shedding of aggregates off of biofilm colonies on catheters. While much is known about biofilm formation and development, the post-inoculation pathogenesis in the bloodstream has not been well-studied. I will describe our PDE model for the flocculation dynamics of Klebsiella pneumoniae in suspension. Existence and uniqueness results along with a description of the numerical approximation scheme will be presented. Lastly, I will discuss a comparison with in vitro data, as well as an overview of the biological implications of this work.