Investigating the chemical pathway to the formation of a single biofilm using infrared spectroscopy

Diagnosing biofilm infections has remained a constant challenge for the last 50 years. Existing diagnostic methods struggle to identify the biofilm phenotype. Moreover, most methods of biofilm analysis destroy the biofilm making the resultant data interpretation difficult. In this study we introduce Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR) spectroscopy as a label-free, non-destructive approach to monitoring biofilm progression. We have utilised FTIR in a novel application to evaluate the chemical composition of bacterial biofilms without disrupting the biofilm architecture. S. epidermidis (RP62A) was grown onto calcium fluoride slides for periods of 30 min–96 h, before semi-drying samples for analysis. We report the discovery of a chemical marker to distinguish between planktonic and biofilm samples. The appearance of new proteins in biofilm samples of varying maturity is exemplified in the spectroscopic data, highlighting the potential of FTIR for identifying the presence and developmental stage of a single biofilm.