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Biofilms are ubiquitous macro-colonies of bacteria that develop at variousinterfaces (solid-liquid, solid-gas or liquid-gas). The formation of biofilmsstarts with the attachment of individual bacteria to an interface, where theyproliferate and produce a slimy polymeric matrix - two processes that result incolony growth and spreading. Recent experiments on the growth of biofilms onagar substrates under air have shown that for certain bacterial strains, theproduction of the extracellular matrix and the resulting osmotic influx ofnutrient-rich water from the agar into the biofilm are more crucial for thespreading behaviour of a biofilm than the motility of individual bacteria. Wepresent a model which describes the biofilm evolution and the advancing biofilmedge for this spreading mechanism. The model is based on a gradient dynamicsformulation for thin films of biologically passive liquid mixtures andsuspensions, supplemented by bioactive processes which play a decisive role inthe osmotic spreading of biofilms. It explicitly includes the wettingproperties of the biofilm on the agar substrate via a disjoining pressure andcan therefore give insight into the interplay between passive surface forcesand bioactive growth processes.

From a thin film model for passive suspensions towards the description of osmotic biofilm spreading