{"id":88369,"date":"2026-05-06T13:46:51","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T17:46:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/?p=88369"},"modified":"2026-05-06T14:16:07","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T18:16:07","slug":"uri-biofilms-researcher-awarded-nsf-career-award","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/uri-biofilms-researcher-awarded-nsf-career-award\/","title":{"rendered":"Engineering professor awarded NSF CAREER Award to research biofilms"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KINGSTON, R.I \u2013 May 06, 2026 \u2013 Assistant professor of chemical, biomolecular, and materials engineering Irene Andreu<\/a> has been awarded a 2026 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, one of the most prestigious awards available to early career faculty. The award provides selected faculty with five years of funding to support their research and to lead advances in the mission of their department or organization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt feels so good to earn this award to build upon the research started in 2022. It solidifies that this research is important and necessary,\u201d said Andreu.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Andreu loading a specimen in a Quantum Designs Versa Lab Physical Properties Measurement System to perform Vibrating Sample Magnetometry, a technique to quantify the magnetic property of nanoparticles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Andreu\u2019s project, titled \u201cCAREER: Transport and transport effects of magnetic nanoparticles in bacterial biofilms,\u201d investigates how and why magnetic particles can be used to remove biofilms. Bacterial biofilms have a wide range of impacts on the economy, society, and human health. The research could yield beneficial biofilm-removal technologies for the food industry and healthcare sectors. It will also establish a database of biofilm physical and chemical properties as reference for future uses in, for example, finding the best ways to break them down.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Left to right: 1 & 2) Two biofilms stained with crystal violet to be able to see and quantify them. 3) Biofilms incubated with magnetic nanoparticles (black dots). 4) section of a 96 well plate containing biofilms incubated with magnetic nanoparticles.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Biofilms are ubiquitous on Earth and can cause problems across diverse industries due to their resistance to physical or chemical challenges. \u201cNot all bacteria are bad, but for example in a medical environment, bacterial biofilms can cause infection, antibiotic resistance, and other adverse effects,\u201d said Andreu. \u201cThat is the kind of biofilm you want to be able to penetrate and remove. Traditional methods of fighting biofilms, such as antibiotic drugs, are losing their efficacy, so we need new methods for removing biofilms. Magnetic particles are interesting because you can turn on and off the antimicrobial effect with an externally applied magnetic field, but then the particles dissolve or are removed naturally without negative effects.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The project also includes proposed experiential biofilm education from high school to graduate level, including the creation of a biofilms in engineering course, taught in conjunction with Australian colleagues at Flinders University, which will improve international collaborations as part of the AUKUS strategic partnership among the U.S., Australia, and the U.K.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Andreu joined the URI faculty in 2022 and obtained physics degrees from the University of Zaragoza.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KINGSTON, R.I \u2013 May 06, 2026 \u2013 Assistant professor of chemical, biomolecular, and materials engineering Irene Andreu has been awarded a 2026 National Science Foundation CAREER Award, one of the most prestigious awards available to early career faculty. The award provides selected faculty with five years of funding to support their research and to lead […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5094,"featured_media":88372,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[27,17,18,779],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88369","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cheme","category-front-page-news","category-news","category-research-news"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88369","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5094"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88369"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88369\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":88396,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88369\/revisions\/88396"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/88372"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88369"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88369"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/engineering\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88369"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}