Editorial: The complexity of microbial biofilm research—an introduction to the third thematic issue on biofilms

Abstract

The EuroBiofilms meeting organized in Brno (Czech Republic) from 23 to 26 June 2015 was the fourth meeting organized by the Study Group for Biofilms (ESGB) of the European Society for Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases (ESCMID), and the first to bring us to Central-Europe. It followed in the footsteps of successful meetings in Rome (2009), Copenhagen (2011) and Ghent (2013). This thematic issue (http://www.femsjournals.com/content/eurobiofilms-2015-complexity-microbial-biofilm-research) contains over 20 papers that highlight some of the trends in, as well as the diversity of, biofilm research, as presented at EuroBiofilms 2015. As has become a tradition, the conference was preceded by two parallel educational workshops. In a first workshop (‘Growth and imaging techniques for laboratory and clinical biofilm research’), coordinated by Paul Stoodley and Claus Sternberg, participants were introduced to the principles behind the use of various experimental systems to grow and image biofilms, as well as techniques to image biofilms on clinical and ex vivo animal samples. In the second workshop (‘Experimental biofilm infection in animals’), coordinated by Thomas Bjarnsholt, various animal models to study biofilm formation were addressed by a range of host lecturers … [↵][1]* Corresponding author: E-mail: Tom.Coenye{at}UGent.be [1]: #xref-corresp-1-1