New antibacterial polymers for reducing human infection

Elaine Allan (primary)
Eastman Dental Institute
University College London
Alexander MacRobert (secondary)
Surgery and Interventional Science
University College London

Abstract

Antibiotic resistance is a major threat to human health worldwide. New mechanisms of resistance are constantly evolving and the emergent ‘superbugs’ are capable of global spread, threatening our ability to treat common infections. Thus, new approaches to reducing the risk of bacterial infection in healthcare and food processing facilities are urgently required. We have developed novel self-sterilising polymers which are activated by ambient light and are highly effective at reducing the surface load of contaminating bacteria. This project aims to understand exactly how the new materials are able to kill bacteria using techniques from the physical and biological sciences.


References

  1. Thomas J. Macdonald, Ke Wu, Sandeep K. Sehmi, Sacha Noimark, William J. Peveler, Hendrik du Toit, Nicolas H. Voelcker, Elaine Allan, Alexander J. MacRobert, Asterios Gavriilidis, and Ivan P. Parkin. 2016. Thiol-Capped Gold Nanoparticles Swell-Encapsulated into Polyurethane as Powerful Antibacterial Surfaces Under Dark and Light Conditions. Scientific Reports 6, 39272
  2. Sandeep Sehmi, Sacha Noimark, Joseph Bear, William Peveler, Melissa Bovis, Elaine Allan, Alexander J. MacRobert and Ivan P. Parkin. 2015. Antibacterial activity of light-activated polyurethane containing crystal violet and metal oxide nanoparticles. Journal of Materials Chemistry B 3: 6490-6500.
  3. Aguayo S, Donos N, Spratt D, Bozec L. 2015. Single-bacterium nanomechanics in biomedicine: unravelling the dynamics of bacterial cells. Nanotechnology 26:062001.
  4. Gundogdu O, Mills DC, Elmi A, Martin MJ, Wren BW, Dorrell N. 2011. The Campylobacter jejuni transcriptional regulator Cj1556 plays a role in the oxidative and aerobic stress response and is important for bacterial survival in vivo. J Bacteriol. 193:4238-49
  5. Waheed Jowiya, …, Nick Dorrell, Elaine Allan. 2015. Pancreatic amylase is an environmental signal for regulation of biofilm formation and host interaction in Campylobacter jejuni. Infect. Immun. 83:4884-95.

BBSRC Area
Molecules, cells and industrial biotechnology
Area of Biology
Chemical BiologyMicrobiology
Techniques & Approaches
BiochemistryBiophysicsChemistryGeneticsMicroscopy / ElectrophysiologyMolecular Biology