Development and characterization of a fiber optical fluorescence sensor for the online monitoring of biofilms and their microenvironment.

The growth of microorganisms on surfaces and interfaces as a biofilm is very common and plays important role in various areas such as material science, biomedicine, or waste treatment among others. Due to their inhomogeneous structure and the variance in the microorganism consortium, the analysis of biofilms represents a significant challenge. An online fluorescence sensor was developed that is able to measure the most important biological fluorophores (proteins, nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide, and flavin) in a noninvasive manner in biofilms, e.