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Persister Cells & Biofilm Antibiotic Tolerance

Interactive 3D biofilm simulator: apply an antibiotic course and watch it rapidly kill actively-growing bacteria while a small dormant persister subpopulation survives untouched, then end treatment and watch persisters wake and repopulate the biofilm — a fully antibiotic-susceptible strain causing a recurring infection with no resistance mutation.

Medicine & Biophysics3DModerate60 FPS

Bacterial biofilms can survive a full antibiotic course without any strain ever acquiring a resistance mutation. This simulator visualizes why: a small subpopulation of genetically identical "persister" cells spontaneously enters a low-metabolism dormant state, so the antibiotic — which targets active cell-wall or protein synthesis — simply has nothing to disrupt in them. Start a course and watch it wipe out the actively-growing majority while persisters sit untouched; end the course and watch survivors wake up and regrow the biofilm from scratch, fully susceptible all over again.

⚙ Under the hood

Apply an antibiotic course to a 3D bacterial biofilm and watch it rapidly kill the actively-growing majority while a small dormant persister subpopulation survives untouched, then end treatment and watch persisters wake and repopulate the biofilm — a fully antibiotic-susceptible strain causing recurrent infection without any resistance mutation.

MedicineMicrobiologyBiofilmPersister CellsAntibiotic ToleranceBacteria

3D · Three.js / WebGL renderer · 60 FPS target · runs fully client-side, no install