ABSTRACT
Even though each biofilm study is unique and different studies use biofilms with different microbial community structures grown in different reactors and the researchers evaluate biofilm processes using different conceptual, computational, physical, and virtual tools, and perhaps different methods of interpreting the results, many steps in the research procedures are common and repeated from one study to another. For example, in each biofilm study, the researcher will have to acquire the microorganisms, prepare their stock culture, evaluate their growth parameters, preserve them for future use, select the growth medium, select the reactor, etc. This chapter will describe how to make these decisions, and many of the steps described here can be reproduced in other laboratories. The first step in every biofilm study is establishing the goal, and this and related topics are described in Chapter 1. Here, we assume that the goal, objectives, etc., have been determined and setting up the experiments can begin.
