Dear Colleagues,

Although a sessile microbial community was first observed in the 17th century, the modern concept of bacterial biofilms and their relevance for human and veterinary medicine was only recognized in the early 1970s. Since then, research interest in biofilm-associated infections has increased dramatically, and today, we know that approximately 80% of chronic and recurrent bacterial infections in humans are associated with biofilms. Bacterial biofilms are inherently complex structures, where integrated cues from quorum-sensing systems and the surrounding environment modulate the patterns of bacterial cell gene expression, metabolism, and interaction with the local host microenvironment and the immune system. The protection offered by biofilms to bacterial communities dramatically contributes to increasing their resilience to antimicrobial treatments, and together with the spread of genetically encoded antibiotic resistance, they represent an extraordinary threat to human and veterinary health. Furthermore, increasing evidence suggests that biofilms can serve as environmental reservoirs of antimicrobial resistance. Altogether, this underscores the compelling importance of improving our understanding of how these microbial communities are regulated and how they interact with the host during infection and, ultimately, develop targeted therapeutic strategies to eradicate them. In this Special Issue, we aim to attract review and perspective papers of outstanding quality and scientific content on the involvement of bacterial biofilms in human and veterinary infections. We invite works on biofilms brought about by Gram-positive as well as Gram-negative bacteria aimed at providing a deeper understanding of their mode of regulation and the pattern of host–pathogen interactions using state-of-the-art research tools and next-generation high-throughput approaches. Moreover, we welcome perspectives on novel biofilm-oriented therapeutic tools and strategies.

Dr. Christian Kranjec
Guest Editor

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• biofilm
• antibiotic resistance
• bacterial infections
• Gram-negative bacteria
• Gram-positive bacteria
• extracellular matrix (ECM)
• immune evasion
• omics
• metabolism
• quorum-sensing