Biofilms

Three days ago, @sueinmn posted a very interesting article related to biofilms in the Discussion "Vaccine against MAC?". Her posting prompted me to dig into past discussions of this group in search for more references on biofilms. There were many, certainly, but scattered around. I think that understanding biofilms is so crucial to understanding all the difficulties encountered in dealing with MAC/MAI, that I propose to start a topic of discussion on biofilms. That could facilitate the exchange of information and discussion.
I am attaching a seminal paper published in 1999 by Costerton et al., where a bacterial biofilm is defined as "a structured community of bacterial cells enclosed in a self-produced polymeric matrix and adherent to an inert or living surface."
Additionally, I uploaded a 2004 paper by Costerton and Wilson, in which they introduce the Journal Biofilms, and provide a general view of the matter.