  Several bacteria and bacteria strands form biofilms in different
environmental conditions, e.g. pH, temperature, nutrients, etc. Biofilm growth,
therefore, is an extremely robust process. Because of this, while biofilm
growth is a complex process affected by several variables, insights into
biofilm formation could be obtained studying simple schematic models. In this
manuscript, we describe a hybrid molecular dynamics and Monte Carlo model for
the simulation of the early stage formation of a biofilm, to explicitly
demonstrate that it is possible to account for most of the processes expected
to be relevant. The simulations account for the growth and reproduction of the
bacteria, for their interaction and motility, for the synthesis of
extracellular polymeric substances and Psl trails. We describe the effect of
these processes on the early stage formation of biofilms, in two dimensions,
and also discuss preliminary three-dimensional results.
