Identification of ability to form biofilm in and by Raman spectroscopy.

Finding rapid, reliable diagnostic methods is a big challenge in clinical microbiology. Raman spectroscopy is an optical method used for multiple applications in scientific fields including microbiology. This work reports its potential in identifying biofilm positive strains of and . We tested 54  strains (23 biofilm positive, 31 negative) and 51  strains (27 biofilm positive, 24 negative) from colonies on Mueller-Hinton agar plates, using Raman spectroscopy. The accuracy was 98.9% for  and 96.1% for . The method showed great potential for identifying biofilm positive bacterial and yeast strains. We suggest that Raman spectroscopy might become a useful aid in clinical diagnostics.