Novel Non-Stick Material Joins Portfolio of Slippery Surface Technologies
BOSTON/CAMBRIDGE, MA – More than 80 percent of microbial infections in the human body are caused by a build-up of bacteria, according to the National Institutes of Health. Bacteria cells gain a foothold in the body by accumulating and forming into adhesive colonies called biofilms, which help them to thrive and survive but cause infections and associated life-threatening risks to their human hosts. These biofilms commonly form on medical surfaces including those of mechanical heart valves, urinary catheters, intravenous catheters and implants. But a new study reported in the inaugural issue of ACS Biomaterials Scienceand Engineering demonstrates a powerful, long-lasting repellent surface technology that can be used with medical materials to prevent infections caused by biofilms.
The new approach, which its inventors are calling “liquid-infused polymers,” joins an arsenal of slippery surface coatings that have been developed at Harvard’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) and Wyss Institute for Biologically Inspired Engineering.