Why Can't You Culture a Biofilm? | MicroGenDX Minute Ep.3

More Biofilm Research and studies can be found at https://microgendx.com/biofilm-research/

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Why can’t you culture a biofilm?
Research since the 70s has increasingly shown us that the tendency of bacteria is to develop into a biofilm state. Bacteria create biofilm formations on the surfaces inside the body, and biofilms become collaborative communities of different species of bacteria and fungi. It is possible for anaerobes, aerobes, and fungi to exist in the same biofilm, whether that is in the sinuses, a wound, or the bladder.
Its because of these special behaviors that a biofilm cannot be accurately identified with cultures. First, because the biofilm will not form in a culture dish the way it has inside the host body. Once the biofilm is broken up the species which make it up revert to their planktonic forms of behavior and those species which flourish in the environment of the dish grow even if they are only minor players in the biofilm community, and others may be unable to grow even if they were the majority of the biofilm in the host’s infection.
Moreover, because the biofilm can be made of different kinds of bacteria and fungi, it would take multiple kinds of cultures to identify them all even if they could all be grown in the lab, which many species cannot.
Molecular testing does not face these difficulties because it does not attempt to grow any of the microbes, but rather extracts the DNA from the sample. MicrogenDX’s two part DNA test- PCR and NGS- uses the DNA from the sample to accurately identify all of the species in a sample. Furthermore, MicroGenDX’s disgnostic report lists each species by their relative percentage of the total. This provides a complete microbial picture to assist doctors in determining which species need to be targeted in order to clear the infection.
More Biofilm Research and studies can be found at https://microgendx.com/biofilm-research/