Persister Cells & Biofilm Antibiotic Tolerance

Antibiotic Course

Antibiotic kill rate 0.35 / s

Simulation speed 1.0×

Live readouts

Active (susceptible) cells

–

Dormant persister cells

–

Total biofilm size

–

Antibiotic status

Off

Active Persister Total

How it works

Every cell in this biofilm is the same genetic strain and is fully antibiotic-susceptible — no resistance mutation exists anywhere in the population. Most antibiotics disrupt an active cellular process (building new cell wall, synthesizing new proteins), so they only harm cells that are actually doing that process right now.

A small persister subpopulation has spontaneously dropped into a reversible dormant state with almost no metabolic activity. The antibiotic has nothing active to disrupt in a dormant cell, so it survives untouched — while the genetically identical, actively-growing majority dies rapidly.

Once the course ends, surviving persisters wake up stochastically and resume normal growth, dividing to repopulate the biofilm — including spawning a fresh, tiny persister subpopulation of their own. Their offspring are fully susceptible again: nothing was inherited genetically, so a second antibiotic course would kill the regrown majority just as fast.

Antibiotic kill rate — how fast active cells die per second once the course starts. Persisters are unaffected at any setting.
Simulation speed — time multiplier so you can watch a full kill-then-regrowth cycle without waiting.

Active — killed by antibiotic Persister — dormant, survives Dying (antibiotic acting)

⚠ Couldn't load the 3D engineThree.js failed to load from the CDN. Check your connection and reload.