Ask the Experts

Bob McLean has over 30 years’ experience as a microbiologist, during which time he and his lab have done a number of studies on surface-adherent microorganisms (biofilms). In 1998, he and his colleagues had an experiment on the space shuttle with John Glenn, in which they were one of the first research groups to show that biofilms could form in microgravity. Since that discovery, there have been a number of biofilm issues, notably instances of fouling in the water recovery system in the International Space Station and other spacecraft. In 2015, Bob, along with collaborators at Arizona State and the Johnson Space Center, received a NASA grant to study biofilm formation during spaceflight. Confocal and other types of microscopy have been instrumental in these investigations.