During the recent transition between acute diseases caused by swarms of single planktonic bacteria, and chronic infections caused by bacteria growing in slime-enclosed biofilms, a general clinical consensus has emerged that pathologies with bacterial etiologies are frequently culture negative. Because biofilm infections now affect 17 million Americans per year (killing approximately 450,000), the suggestion that these common and lethal infections regularly go unnoticed by the only FDA-approved method for their detection and characterization is a matter of urgent concern. Biologically, we...

During the recent transition between acute diseases caused by swarms of single planktonic bacteria, and chronic infections caused by bacteria growing in slime-enclosed biofilms, a general clinical consensus has emerged that pathologies with bacterial etiologies are frequently culture negative. Because biofilm infections now affect 17 million Americans per year (killing approximately 450,000), the suggestion that these common and lethal infections regularly go unnoticed by the only FDA-approved method for their detection and characterization is a matter of urgent concern. Biologically, we...