Design and development of antimicrobial materials and wound healing devices to aid in treatment and recovery of traumatic and chronic injuries.
Address: 225 S 700 E, St. George, UT
URL: https://nau.edu/nau-research/available-technologies/biomedical-innovations/biofilm-formation/
This technology utilizes specific compositions of ionic liquids in the development of wound-healing scaffolds to disrupt bacterial biofilm formation and to also advance healing through enhanced permeation of antibiotics to treat difficult skin lesions. The process of wound healing is a complex cascade of events which attempts to maintain homeostasis in the wounded tissue. Closing of the wound is essential to the healing process as it protects the tissue itself from infection with foreign agents, such as opportunistic bacterial pathogens. Biofilms established by these pathogens are a common cause of chronic infections that slow the process of wound healing. The bacterial biofilms themselves are challenging to eliminate with conventional antibiotics due to an extensive exopolymeric layer covering the pathogen that limits diffusion of these drugs into the biofilm. Typical application of prescribed antibiotics do not efficiently pass through this barrier, and thus biofilm bacteria are often 500-1,000 times less susceptible to antibiotic treatment than their planktonic counterparts. Bacterial biofilms are responsible for most hospital-acquired infections, and the CDC has estimated the cost of combatting these maladies alone exceeds $10 billion per year.
We have developed novel wound-healing scaffolds that render the scaffolds themselves resistant to contamination with biofilms and enhances healing in difficult to treat patients. Specifically, novel electrospinning methods have been developed to form protein scaffolds doped with variable amounts of our novel antimicrobial materials. The scaffolds have also been validated and verified to remain efficacious via in vitro antibacterial assays against two representative pathogens (Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Enterococcus sp.). Human dermal fibroblast cells are observed to nucleate and proliferate on scaffolds containing effective concentrations of the antimicrobials. These scaffolds alone support rapid wound closure and healing; however, they can also be used as a platform for the delivery of therapeutic agents to further promote wound healing (e.g., stem cell delivery, growth factor delivery, platelet-rich plasma activation/delivery). These scaffolds are fabricated using native skin proteins with integrated antimicrobials and, as a result, they more closely match the composition and architecture of skin, thereby enhancing wound healing while also inhibiting bacterial infection.