Microbial biofilms are a major impediment to the use of indwelling medical devices, generating device-related infections with high morbidity and mortality. Major efforts directed towards preventing and eradicating the biofilm problem face difficulties because biofilms protect themselves very effectively by producing a polysaccharide coating, reducing biofilm sensitivity to antimicrobial agents....

In nature, microorganisms prefer to reside in structured microbial communities, termed biofilms, rather than as free-floating planktonic cells. Advantageous for the microorganisms, but disadvantageous for human health, is the increased resistance/tolerance of the biofilm cells to antimicrobial treatment. In clinically relevant biofilms, Candida albicans is one of the most frequently isolated mi...

This paper describes how the quantitative analytical tools of CMEIAS image analysis software can be used to investigate in situ microbial interactions involving cell-to-cell communication within biofilms. Various spatial pattern analyses applied to the data extracted from the 2-dimensional coordinate positioning of individual bacterial cells at single-cell resolution indicate that microbial col...

Structural and microbial heterogeneity occurs in almost any type of biofilm system. General approaches for the design of biofilm systems consider biofilms as homogeneous and of constant thickness. In order to improve the design of biofilms systems, models need to incorporate structural heterogeneity and the effect of inert microbial mass. We have improved a 2D biofilm model based on cellular au...

While most biological materials are insulating in nature, efficient extracellular electron transfer is a critical property of biofilms associated with microbial electrochemical systems and several microorganisms are capable of establishing conductive aggregates and biofilms. Though construction of these conductive microbial networks is an intriguing and important phenomenon in both natural and ...

Geobacter sulfurreducens can form electrically conductive biofilms, but the potential for conductivity through mixed-species biofilms has not been examined. A current-producing biofilm grown from a wastewater sludge inoculum was highly conductive with low charge transfer resistance even though microorganisms other than Geobacteraceae accounted for nearly half the microbial community.

Microbial biofilms are the prime site of nutrient and contaminant removal in streams. It is therefore essential to understand how biofilms affect hydrodynamic exchange, solute transport, and retention in systems where geomorphology end induced hydrodynamics shape their growth and structure. We experimented with large-scale streamside flumes with streambed landscapes constructed from graded bedf...