Microbial Biofilms: Systems Biology Affecting Humans and the Environment

University Of Southern California, Los Angeles CA

Investigators

Linked publications & trials

Abstract

DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): The concept that biofilms constitute the predominant mode-of-growth of bacteria in virtually all nutrient sufficient ecosystems has gained wide acceptance, in Microbial Ecology, and a very large number of new methods have emerged for the study of these microbial communities. This biofilm concept has generated 2,000 research papers in each of the past two years, major microbiology meetings routinely contain special biofilm sessions, and weeklong biofilm meetings have attracted 320, 520, and 830 attendees in 1996, 2000, and 2003 respectively. The long-term objective of the proposed meeting is to explore the extent to which biofilms are involved in medical and dental health and disease, and to harness all of the new methods for the analysis of these sessile communities for the study of biofilms of medical and dental importance. Because Microbiology is a very highly fragmented field, with dozens of anthrocentric compartments (e.g. marine, soil, dental, pulmonary, etc.), the latest advances in methods for the study of biofilms do not naturally disseminate across the boundaries of these sub-disciplines. It is therefore our immediate objective to present the richest possible "menu" of new biofilm concepts and methods to a predominately dental and medical audience, so that health scientists who do not routinely attend microbiology meetings can acquire these general biofilm concepts and learn these methods. In lay terms, a whole suite of new methods have been developed for the study of bacteria as they actually grow in healthy and diseased ecosystems, and these techniques have revealed a basic bacterial strategy of growing in slime-enclosed communities called biofilms. These new methods and concepts do not spread optimally, because they arise in isolated groups who do not attend the same meetings or read the same journals, and this meeting is designed to make sure that dental and medical scientists know the very latest biofilm theories, and learn the newest biofilm methods. This meeting will consist of a 2 day symposium to be held on the campus of the University of Southern California, a one day workshop to be conducted at 3 venues in Los Angeles, and a 2 day invitational retreat at the Wrigley Marine Science Center on Santa Catalina Island. The symposim and workshop will be advertised very widely to attract an expected audience of > 400 biofilm specialists and dental/medical researchers interested in the +/- 30 invited lectures on all aspects of microbial biofilms. The retreat will concentrate on the detailed design and content of a book on Biofilm Methods, that will be published by Springer-Verlag, and will serve (with its associated CDs and website) to extend the content of this meeting to the whole Infectious Disease community in both Dentistry and Medicine.