Microbial Biofilms: Systems Biology Affecting Humans and the Environment

描述（由申请人提供）：在几乎所有营养充足的生态系统中，生物膜构成细菌的主要生长模式的概念已在微生物生态学中得到广泛接受，并且出现了大量用于研究这些微生物群落的新方法。在过去的两年中，这种生物膜的概念每年产生2000篇研究论文，主要的微生物学会议通常包含特殊的生物膜会议，为期一周的生物膜会议在1996年，2000年和2003年分别吸引了320，520和830名与会者。拟议会议的长期目标是探索生物膜参与医疗和牙科健康和疾病的程度，并利用所有新方法分析这些固着群落，以研究具有医疗和牙科重要性的生物膜。因为微生物学是一个高度分散的领域，有几十个以人为中心的隔间（例如海洋，土壤，牙科，肺部等），生物膜研究方法的最新进展并不自然地跨越这些子学科的边界传播。因此，我们的直接目标是向主要是牙科和医学观众呈现最丰富的新生物膜概念和方法的“菜单”，以便不经常参加微生物学会议的健康科学家可以获得这些一般生物膜概念并学习这些方法。通俗地说，已经开发了一整套新方法来研究细菌在健康和患病生态系统中的实际生长，这些技术揭示了细菌在被称为生物膜的粘液封闭社区中生长的基本策略。这些新的方法和概念并没有得到最佳传播，因为它们是在孤立的群体中出现的，他们不参加相同的会议或阅读相同的期刊，这次会议旨在确保牙科和医学科学家了解最新的生物膜理论，并学习最新的生物膜方法。 本次会议将包括在南加州大学校园举行的为期2天的研讨会，在洛杉矶的3个地点举行的为期1天的研讨会，以及在圣卡塔利纳岛的箭牌海洋科学中心举行的为期2天的邀请务虚会。研讨会和研讨会将广泛宣传，以吸引超过400名生物膜专家和牙科/医学研究人员的预期观众，他们对+/- 30场关于微生物生物膜各个方面的邀请讲座感兴趣。务虚会将集中在一本书的详细设计和内容的生物膜方法，这将是由Springer-Verlag出版，并将服务（与其相关的CD和网站），以扩大本次会议的内容，以整个传染病社区在牙科和医学。

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.