BIOFILMS 2000

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DESCRIPTION: (from the application) Funding is requested to support the participation of US scientists in a meeting entitled "Biofilms 2000" that will be sponsored by the American Society for Microbiology (ASM). This meeting will be held at the Big Sky Resort, in Montana between the 16th and 21st of July 2000, and it will bring together researchers in the field of bacterial biofilms from all over the world. A similar ASM conference, in Snowbird Utah in 1996, drew 360 participants from 42 countries and was characterized by the purposeful inclusion of you investigators, postdoctoral fellows and students, mostly from the US and UK. The Snowbird meeting is widely regarded as having defined the emerging field of Biofilm Microbiology and many important connections were made between people in different basic disciplines (Science, Medicine, Dentistry, and Engineering) who all share a keen and urgent interest in biofilms. Because of the increased interest in this field, this meeting is expected to draw at least 500 delegates. The medical and dental field have gradually come to terms with the realization that the bacteria that cause chronic and refractory infections, which comprise about 65 percent of the infections seen in the developed world, actually grow in matrix-enclosed biofilms. The inherent resistance of these sessile biofilm bacteria to both antimicrobial agents and natural host defenses poses very serious problems of management and, frankly, we have not done a good job of designing preventive or therapeutic strategies to deal with these common infections (e.g. middle ear infections and periodontitis). The importance of the topic is attested by the recent issuance of an RFA (98-070) by eight institutes of the NIH, and by intense academic and industrial interest as reflected in the recent review in Science (May 21, 1999) and article in Business Week (September 13, 1999), Biofilms 2000 will include a full day workshop in order to teach the special biofilm methods necessary for research in this area, and a full day symposium on the development of a special interdisciplinary cadre of scientists who will carry research forward in specific areas including medical and dental infectious diseases.