Engineering smart urinary catheters expressing antimicrobial activity and preventing biofilm formation

Project ID: 2531ad1530

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UCL Lead department: Division of Surgery and Interventional Sciences

Project Summary:

Catheter associated urinary tract infections (UTIs) are the most common hospital infection. Biofilm formation on a catheter provides an opportunity for extraluminal pathogens to ascend and cause infections. This becomes more challenging as the duration of the catheter use increases, with catheter management protocols so far proven insufficient to reduce infections. Biofilms are cell aggregates of bacteria on/in surfaces. Interaction of biofilms with the surfaces they attach on to is a crucial step in their development.

In this context, the goal of this project is to design smart surfaces with capabilities to both disrupt and monitor the biofilm evolution. For the completion of the goal, the following specific objectives will be met:

[Year 1] We will fabricate novel catheters in terms of mechanical (anti-adhesive architecture) and chemical composition (encapsulation of natural antimicrobial substances, including waste biproducts).

[Year 2] We will evaluate the formation/evolution of complex biofilms on such surfaces, therefore, establishing clear structure-(microbial)activity relationships at a local and global level, decoupling the roles of surface properties (e.g., surface charge, chemical functionality, surface energy, topography) on the biofilm kinetics, spatiotemporal distribution, cell-cell and cell-surface interactions.

[Year 3] We will treat the developed smart catheters with Cold Atmospheric Plasma (CAP), to decouple how the surface properties of the novel catheters affect the antimicrobial properties of CAP. Achieving enhanced CAP antimicrobial activity opens great potential for the novel surfaces to be used catheter management.

Project Impact: There is a direct impact on UTIs via delivering novel catheter designs, reducing infections and extending the product life. Our offer a much more sustainable design of the catheters. Further to the direct impact on UTIs, the project will generate new knowledge on novel material -microbial interactions that can guide the design of smart materials for other healthcare applications or industry (e.g. healthcare surfaces or packaging).