Researchers at the University
of Bath are to be part of a €3 million Europe-wide research collaboration
to pioneer research into safer, more effective anti-bacterial plastics and coatings
that can be used in items such as food packaging, medical devices to wound dressings,
and nappies.
 | | Bath research team (back, left to right): Dr Nick Waterfield; Xavier Munoz; Neil Poulter; Dr Gareth Price (HoD); Dr Toby Jenkins. Front: Charlotte Brown and Jin Zhou. |
The Bath team has developed a range of new compounds which have been shown
to be highly effective against common hospital bacterial infections such as
MRSA and are safer than existing anti-bacterials based on silver nanoparticles.
They will develop these compounds so they can be cheaply and efficiently incorporated
into a wide range of materials from medical devices, wound dressings, food packaging
and even nappies.
Led by Dr Toby Jenkins at the University of Bath, the research team comprises
chemists Dr Andrew Johnson and Dr Gareth Price, and biologist Dr Nick Waterfield
as well as colleagues in Barcelona, Exeter, St. Gallen (Switzerland), Mainz
and Cologne (both Germany).
From the total grant, Bath will receive just less than three quarters of a
million Euros, which will fund equipment and a team of three PhD students and
a Research Fellow.
So-called “superbug” bacteria such as MRSA are dangerous because
they are resistant to most conventional antibiotics, a problem that is getting
worse each year.
To try and understand this problem, the researchers will also be studying which
genes allow bacteria to become resistant.
Dr Jenkins said: “In simple terms, we want to know what is special about
that one bacterium in a million that is resistant to an antimicrobial polymer.
Which genes are switched on or off and which proteins are produced to help the
bacterium survive?
“From this knowledge we can stay one step ahead of evolution in the fight
against pathogenic bacteria and infections such as MRSA and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.”
Early work by the University of Bath team has made new compounds containing
zinc, copper and silver which have been effective against common hospital bacteria
but are non-toxic to human cell growth.
Posted March 19th, 2009
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