Surgical Infection Research: Projects. Bacterial biofilms and chronic wounds: combination therapy Chronic wounds affect many diabetic and older patients and have recently been shown to be infected with biofilm. A biofilm is an organised community of bacteria attached to a substrate and each other by a polysaccharide matrix. Biofilm bacteria are resistant to the host immune response and up to 1500 times more resistant to antibiotics. Aim: Proof of principal that combination therapy involving physical and chemical insults increases killing of biofilm bacteria. We hypothesise that killing of biofilm bacteria will increase wound healing thus improving patient outcome. We will grow biofilms composed of clinical strains and laboratory strains of important wound organisms (strains obtained from chronic wounds) such as Staphlococcus aureus (MSSA), multi-resistant S aureus (MRSA), S epidermidis (SE), E.coli (E) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (Ps) in vitro. Bacterial biofilms: an important reservoir of multi-resistant organisms.
2: Hospital-acquired infections. Between 5% and 10% of patients admitted to hospital acquire an infection during their admission. In Australia, the 1984 National Nosocomial Prevalence Survey documented that 6.3% of 28 643 hospitalised patients had a hospital-acquired infection, with the highest rates in larger hospitals.1 No similar study has been conducted since, but more recent data from the United States suggest that the rate of hospital-acquired infections has increased over the past two decades.2 The recent trend to shorter hospital stays means that more patients with hospital-acquired infections are presenting to general practitioners in the community.
In addition, as home administration of intravenous medications becomes increasingly common, cannula-associated infections once confined to hospital patients may present in the community. Epidemiology Many organisms gain entry to the body through breaches or evasion of "first line" body defences. Common hospital-acquired infections Surgical wound infections.
MRSA Biofilms - MRSA Medical MRSA Infection CAMRSA. Staphylococcus aureus - Biofilms... Enterococcus faecalis, Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus epidermidis in Biofilm Formations... Prior to 1984, enterococci were members of the genus Streptococcus: thus Enterococcus faecalis was known as Streptococcus faecalis. A characteristic of many pathogenic strains of Staphylococcus epidermidis is the production of a slime resulting in biofilm formation. The slime is predominantly a secreted teichoic acid, normally found in the cell wall of the staphylococci. This ability to form a biofilm on the surface of a prosthetic device is probably a significant determinant of virulence for these bacterium. MRSA resistant bacterium are often found in biofilm formations - Biofilms are 'protective coatings' which attract various strains of the staph bacterium to form a matrix-type of formation that protect the inner core and prevent antibiotic influence.
Organisms in a biofilm can result in chronic infections. Biofilm development on inanimate surfaces... Biofilms, Hospital Infections. Nosocomial infection. A hospital-acquired infection, also known as a HAI or in medical literature as a nosocomial infection, is an infection whose development is favored by a hospital environment, such as one acquired by a patient during a hospital visit or one developing among hospital staff. Such infections include fungal and bacterial infections and are aggravated by the reduced resistance of individual patients.[1][dead link] In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimated roughly 1.7 million hospital-associated infections, from all types of microorganisms, including bacteria, combined, cause or contribute to 99,000 deaths each year.[2] In Europe, where hospital surveys have been conducted, the category of Gram-negative infections are estimated to account for two-thirds of the 25,000 deaths each year.
Nosocomial infections can cause severe pneumonia and infections of the urinary tract, bloodstream and other parts of the body. Types[edit] Cause[edit] Transmission[edit] BMC Research Notes | Full text | Comparison of methods for the detection of biofilm production in coagulase-negative staphylococci. Biofilm. IUPAC definition Aggregate of microorganisms in which cells that are frequently embedded within a self-produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) adhere to each other and/or to a surface. Note 1: A biofilm is a fixed system that can be adapted internally to environmental conditions by its inhabitants.
Note 2: The self-produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substance, which is also referred to as slime, is a polymeric conglomeration generally composed of extracellularbiopolymers in various structural forms.[1] Microbes form a biofilm in response to many factors, which may include cellular recognition of specific or non-specific attachment sites on a surface, nutritional cues, or in some cases, by exposure of planktonic cells to sub-inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics.[4][5] When a cell switches to the biofilm mode of growth, it undergoes a phenotypic shift in behavior in which large suites of genes are differentially regulated.[6] Formation[edit] Development[edit] Hospital Acquired Infections Costly, Preventable. A program to reduce hospital-acquired infections can save an average of $1.1 million a year, according to results of a new study. In 2002, one in every 20 hospitalized patients developed a healthcare-associated infection (HAI), making HAIs one of the leading causes of death and illness in the U.S., and costing up to $33 billion dollars, according to the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
The 1.7 million reported HAIs resulted in an estimated 99,000 deaths in that year, wrote Hugh Waters, MS, PhD, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, and colleagues in the September/October issue of the American Journal of Medical Quality. There's been "substantial uncertainty" among hospitals on how reducing infections would impact their financial performance, according to the study authors. "Without a strong business case, hospitals may be reluctant to embark on meaningful efforts to improve safety," they wrote.
The Keystone program has two main components: Emily P. False. DIYbio. Garage Bio | Biology is for everybody. Get in the garage and tinker! Garage biotech: Life hackers. Backyard Biotech and the rise of the Biohacker | TechNyou. By Jason Major Technyou There is a large, active and vibrant community of backyard biotechnologists out there and, until recently, I had no idea they existed. Known as ‘Biohackers’, this group of citizen scientists could be a creative resource, but do they also represent a risk, even if a negligible one at this stage? Some of these guys tinker with biological parts such as genes to create novel biological systems, potentially novel life with the tools used for synthetic biology, though most are doing nothing more harmful than DNA extraction. But the ability to get into the risky stuff could become easier as equipment costs continue to plummet, our understanding of genetics increases and the plug and play genetic parts available already get a bit more sophisticated.
Escape The risk is the potential for these novel organisms to escape from the lab (or garage, kitchen…), either accidentally or by those with more nefarious intentions. Come into my lab, and see what’s on the slab Pocket money. Biohacking Sydney. Biohacking: Reclaiming The Code of Life. Biohacker Cathal Garvey talked about DIY biotechnology at the annual PICNIC festival in Amsterdam. With the theme of the two-day festival being New Ownership Garvey was right at home. Academically trained as a geneticist Garvey traded in a career in science for DIY bioengineering. Seeing what hacking had done for computing -putting the ability to create and innovate in the hands of the people- he wanted the same for biotechnology and genetics.
“I am trying to make every level of biotechnology available for anyone in the audience”, Garvey said, “because this is the most fundamental technology of them all. Garvey is part of a larger community of biohackers. So how do you create your own genetically modified organism? “In the picture you see classical bacteria. “You can order plasmids with DNA of your choosing over the internet. “You can download the sequence for the protein from the public database uniprot.org. Garvey points out that biotechnology is one of the oldest technologies.