Biofilm Visualisation
We make invisible apparent
Biofilm Visualization Unit
Biofilm-visualization department
We make the invisible visible
Why bacterial visualization? Microorganisms were created 4 billion years ago. By contrast, multicellular organisms only existed 700 million years ago. In accordance with the longer and, above all, more varied history of development, the diversity of bacterial species is far greater than that of all multicellular organisms existing today. They took the evolution of the Earth, were exposed to very different than today's conditions and maintained themselves in it. Accordingly, they cumulatively have a multiple of the eukaryotic properties. People learned about bacteria very late. The first mentions can be found in Galileo. Until Pasteur (1860), it was understood to mean tiny creatures with unknown properties. Only the introduction of the bacterial culture enabled the identification of bacteria and their properties. Unfortunately, only a few species of bacteria can be cultivated in pure culture. Later, the sequencing of bacterial genes was added. Since the advent of sequencing methods for bacterial identification, our ideas about the world of bacteria have exploded. Bacteria are everywhere. Although tiny, they are adapted to a variety of conditions. Moreover, by forming complex communities, bacteria can assert themselves through cooperation under conditions incompatible with life. Man is no exception to this. On the contrary, the human organism offers a true universe for various microorganisms and micro-communities. From the environment, bacteria on the surface of the body find niches for survival, growth, prosperity and expansion. The complexity of the collections of bacterial species that we find on the different body surfaces by means of sequencing are growing day by day. Our understanding of the relationships does not meet this knowledge growth. Thus, no new bacterial pathogen has been described in the last 40 years. How so? Each body part has its own specific composition of the microbiome. This is disturbed in the disease. The sequencing can prove the deviation well. But what role do the bacteria play in this? The "healthy" composition of the microbiome is the dynamic equation of continuous migration, and a defense or cooperation-directed selection. The sheer presence of bacteria in it says little about their specific role. The DNA microbiome analyzes of different parts of the body therefore look like a horoscope to the doctor or the affected patient. You can see a long list of bacterial names, most of which are unknown. Similarly "meaningful" would be a star map, which lists planets and planets of the respective sky segment, but neither their mutual arrangement nor their movements and distances of the Sun and Earth opposite describes. As important as the precise identification of stars such as microorganisms is, without their exact spatial arrangement, this is worthless. For the role of individual microorganisms in each finding, it is important to know where exactly these are: in the mucus, far away or in direct contact (adherent) to the host cells or even invasive: penetrate intracellularly or deep into the tissue. Furthermore, it is important to know if microorganisms are a disordered mixture or if organized communities and biofilms produce certain species. All these questions can be answered using fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH). The FISH method visualizes bacteria group- and species-specific in the study material and shows directly their spatial relationship to each other and to the host. What do we offer? In principle, any material can be examined in the involvement of bacteria is suspected. Bacteria can be visualized at the group, species and in part at the genotype level. By staining with different dyes can be the assignment of individual species to each other and to the host cells have. For this we offer visualization test. The request can be made by the doctor as well as by the patient. We offer 3 visualization tests: for urogenital biofilms, for the colon microbiome, for the tissue microbiome. In principle, all bacteria or / and the individual groups of microorganisms can be visualized. Also, any material where bacteria are suspected is suitable. However, the effort and the price of a visualization with the number of visualized groups increases disproportionately with the gain of knowledge. Therefore we offer the possibility of an individual inquiry and consultation before the order.