Director of the Centre For Biofilm Engineering, National Science Foundation Engineering Research Center
University of Calgary
William Costerton was born in Vernon, BC. He became an expert in microbiology and electron microscopy. Costerton was a University of Calgary postdoctoral student in 1978 when he shook up the established science of microbiology with a new view of bacterial life. His unglamorous project was to define the role of bacteria in the digestive processes of cows. Frustrated by images of microscopic animals "hanging in space," he and his team worked out a way to see the structure of the slimy substance that seemed to anchor bacteria to surfaces in cattle stomachs. When they took them into the lab and "purified" them, they became just like ordinary bacteria. It became obvious that test-tube bacteria are not the same as in life. Natural bacterial colonies were creating their own microhabitat, adhering to surfaces and covering themselves with a slimy protective layer of molecules Costerton dubbed "matrix-enclosed biofilms." The researchers also found that biofilm bacteria were often team players, different species working in physiological co-operation. Soon the Calgary team was finding biofilms everywhere. They discovered that 99.9% of bacteria in rivers live in biofilms; mistaken impressions had previously been obtained from what Costerton calls "floaters", individual bacteria released as scouts from the biofilms themselves. Biofilms also survive under conditions that floaters can't; it takes up to 50 times the bactericide to kill an attached slime population as it does to kill floaters. Costerton and his team have applied their knowledge to developing new technologies in areas ranging from oil production to bacteria-resistant medical devices. He holds several biological patents and is president of the Microbios company. He received the Haultain Prize in 1984 and the Isaac Walton Killam Memorial Prize in 1989, and holds a NSERC industrial research chair.
B.A., U. of BC, 1955; M.A., 1956; Ph.D. U. of W. Ont. 1960; Pres., Microbios Ltd.; Dean of Sci. Baring Union Coll. India 1960-64; Postdoctoral fellow Cambridge U. 1964-66; Asst. Prof. Macdonald Coll. McGill U. 1966-70; Assoc. Prof. of Microbiol., U. of Calgary, 1970; Professor, U. of Calgary, 1974-; AOSTRA Rsch. Prof. 1986-89. Corporate consultant. Recipient Sir Frederick Haultain Prize Sci. 1984; Isaac Walton Killam Meml. Prize Sci. 1989; Author or co-author of over 650 sci. papers. Mem., Am. Soc. Microbiol.; Candn. Soc. Microbiol.
Sources: Canadian Who's Who 1993; NSERC
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