等温微量热仪及生物膜:可利用的生物膜生长代谢能量检测工具
Biofilms are defined as “bacteria growing on a surface as single or multi-layered communities”. Over the past several years the importance of biofilms in research has been increasingly growing as scientists realized that many, if not a large majority, of microorganisms exist naturally as biofilms. Indeed, biofilms studies are common in water science (natural waters or waste waters), environmental studies (biofilm formation on rocks), material science (antifouling surfaces) and finally medical or biomedical studies (infections, implantology).The study of biofilms has evolved with the development of many staining, molecular, or microscopy techniques. However, most of these techniques are destructive and therefore only provide endpoint measurements. Consequently, the metabolism and the dynamic behavior of biofilms remains mostly inaccessible to researchers.In this context, isothermal microcalorimetry is a valuable tool enabling investigation of development and metabolic activities of growing or mature biofilms. Several techniques combined with an isothermal calorimeter can be used to study biofilms and this application note aims at summarizing these techniques and providing some tips and tricks.