Lagree, KatherineMon, Htwe H.Mitchell, Aaron P.Ducker, William A.2018-07-242018-07-242018-06-18http://hdl.handle.net/10919/84322Candida albicans is a fungal pathogen that causes serious biofilm-based infections. Here we have asked whether surface topography may affect C. albicans biofilm formation. We tested biofilm growth of the prototypical wild-type strain SC5314 on a series of polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) solids. The surfaces were prepared with monolayer coatings of monodisperse spherical silica particles that were fused together into a film using silica menisci. The surface topography was varied by varying the diameter of the silica particles that were used to form the film. Biofilm formation was observed to be a strong function of particle size. In the particle size range 4.0±8.0 μm, there was much more biofilm than in the size range 0.5± 2.0 μm. The behavior of a clinical isolate from a clade separate from SC5314, strain p76067, showed results similar to that of SC5314. Our results suggest that topographic coatings may be a promising approach to reduce C. albicans biofilm infections.application/pdfen-USCreative Commons Attribution 4.0 InternationalArticle - Refereedhttps://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0197925136