Biofilms 2007: Broadened Horizons and New Emphases

The 4th ASM Conference on Biofilms (Quebec City, Quebec, Canada, 25 to 29 March 2007) maintained the format so valued at past conferences (keynote talks, invited speakers, talks selected from abstracts, evening specialty sessions, and a hands-on workshop) while increasing scientific diversity by delegating the selection of invited speakers and of talks from abstracts to session chairs appointed by the organizing committee. In particular, the committee targeted the underrepresentation of research on medically relevant biofilms other than those of Pseudomonas aeruginosa and sought to increase the visibility of clinical aspects of biofilm-based disease research; the fruits of these efforts will become apparent in the descriptions of the sessions that follow. Also, an effort was made to increase participation by non-U.S. investigators. At the 3rd Biofilms Conference, also held in Canada, 34% of attendees came from outside the United States. At the Quebec City meeting, 53% were non-U.S. delegates who hailed from the United Kingdom/Europe (22%), Canada (11%), Scandinavia (8%), Asia (4%), Australia/New Zealand (2%), and India, Central and South America, Israel, and Africa (6%). The number of attendees (ca. 600) and the number of submitted abstracts (ca. 400) did not change from the previous meeting, which suggests that, after three meetings with steady growth, the target population is now well represented at the meeting. While the major questions and areas of investigation have not changed significantly since the earlier meetings, new perspectives are emerging. First is the recognition that Pseudomonas aeruginosa, while a superb model organism for numerous reasons, is only one of many bacteria important to theoretical as well as applied aspects of biofilm research; other model organisms (e.g., Vibrio spp., Bacillus spp., oral bacteria, and staphylococci) are now being investigated as natural and fitting alternatives to P. aeruginosa. Second, while flow cell work with monocultures grown in laboratory media will continue to provide critical baseline data and continue to be especially useful in examining theoretical questions, it is becoming clear that biofilm behavior and physiology need to be studied in a manner that reflects the natural environment, whether within the human lung or on a soil particle. Experimental systems have therefore become more sophisticated and employ environmentally relevant substrata and media; accordingly, in vivo sampling and experimentation are becoming more common. Last, moving to the fore is the recognition that the vast majority of bacteria, including many of those involved in human disease, must associate with other genera of bacteria as part of their daily existence: multispecies communities are becoming a targeted research area. This review summarizes the individual sessions through their platform talks, many of which highlighted work presented in greater detail as poster presentations. We hope these descriptions (and the accompanying references, which give a flavor of the topics) will convey the overall high scientific quality not only of the invited talks but also of the talks selected from submitted abstracts. The consensus of the attendees was that this meeting elevated the already high reputation of this conference series. We hope this review will convey some of that feeling to those who have yet to attend the conference.