The Biofilm Model of Freter: A Review

Abstract

R. Freter et al. (1983) developed a simple chemostat-based model of competition between two bacterial strains, one of which is capable of wall-growth, in order to illuminate the role of bacterial wall attachment on the phenomenon of colonization resistance in the mammalian gut. Together with various collaborators, we have re-formulated the model in the setting of a tubular flow reactor, extended the interpretation of the model as a biofilm model, and provided both mathematical analysis and numerical simulations of solution behavior. The present paper provides a review of the work in [4–6,31–35,45, 46].