When motivated local experts from different industries combined their knowledge over a clear scientific goal, it did not come as a surprise to see their solution already in use worldwide and published on NCBI (The National Center for Biotechnology Information).
NCBI is part of the United States National Library of Medicine (NLM), a branch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It houses a series of databases relevant to biotechnology and biomedicine and is an important resource for bioinformatics tools and services.
Read the full publication here.
What they did
Monia Avdić, Nermin Džuzić, Osman Hasanić, Lejla Smajlović-Skenderagić, Almir Badnjević, Mirsada Hukić, and our own Amel Spahić developed an online biofilm calculation tool called the Biofilm Classifier (don’t forget to check it out).
It calculates the optical density cut off value and accordingly determines the biofilm forming categories for the tested isolates by standardized formulas. It also compares the results obtained by Biofilm Classifier to manual calculations.
When using predefined values compared to manual biofilm categorization for the determination of biofilm positive and biofilm negative strains, the specificity tested was 100%, sensitivity 97.81%, positive predictive value 100%, negative predictive value 96.04%, and accuracy 98.57%.
Considering this data, the online calculator will most definitely simplify the process of interpretation of biofilm forming capacity of bacteria using tissue culture plate method.
This tool is designed primarily, but not strictly, for researchers, scientists and laboratory technicians in the field of Microbiology, Molecular Biology and related disciplines.
What’s next
Building a platform of course. It will be designed as a virtual assistant to anyone and everyone working in laboratories, to help with a number of calculations on a molecular level and analysis of various sorts.
Osman Hasanić and Amel are already working on it with full steam. Great job guys!
In short, you can imagine that working alongside Amel can be very inspirational. His positive attitude and willingness to help the global community, while putting heads together with Bosnian professionals from different expert fields, stand as a true example to follow.