Biofilm formation studies in microtiter plate format.

Although Candida biofilms have been clearly identified as playing an increasingly important role in human disease, their biology and the reason for their poor susceptibility to antifungal agents remain largely unknown. Over recent years, various models have been developed in order to better characterize Candida biofilms. Here, we describe a number of rapid, inexpensive microtiter-format techniques and strategies which can be used for large-scale screening procedures aimed at identifying genes involved in Candida biofilm formation and/or potential antifungal agents with activity against pathogen cells growing under these conditions. The procedures could also be easily adapted for studying biofilm structures with a range of microscopy techniques.