Imaging of biofilms at solid-air interfaces

抗菌素耐药性的出现，以及耐多药细菌菌株和相关的医院感染是工业和卫生保健的主要关注点。越来越多的研究结果表明，环境表面是感染和/或产品污染的来源。这些环境表面的一个共同特点是它们主要是固体-空气界面。相比之下，生物膜（表面相关微生物）的研究，以及用于评估产品功效的方法和旨在减轻生物膜的方案几乎完全是在固液界面进行的。此外，微生物细胞在固气界面的积累程度不如固液界面，生长速度较慢，代谢活性较低；因此，它们有望对抗菌剂等环境压力源表现出更强的抵抗力。这些因素需要新的方法来描述微生物在微环境中的存在、分布和活动，这似乎是我们成功控制感染和腐败的关键。

The emergence of antimicrobial resistance, as well as multidrug-resistant bacterial strains and related nosocomial infections are of major concern in both Industry and Health Care. There is a growing body of research results suggesting that environmental surfaces act as a source for infection and / or product contamination. A distinct feature common to these environmental surfaces is that they are primarily solid-air interfaces. In contrast, biofilm (surface-associated microorganisms) research, and methods used to evaluate the efficacy of products and programs aimed at mitigating biofilms are done almost exclusively at solid-liquid interfaces. Furthermore, microbial cells do not accumulate at solid-air interfaces to the same extent as at solid-liquid interfaces, and have slower growth rates and lower metabolic activity; they are thus expected to show increased resistance against environmental stressors such as antimicrobials. These factors necessitate new approaches to delineate microbial presence, distribution and activity in this microenvironment that appears to be a critical to our success for infection and spoilage control.