Campus researchers hope to provide foundation for better bacteria-resistant technology
Summary:
Researches from UC Berkley grouped together to find out how Staphylococcus cells attach themselves to different metal objects. In order to do this, they set up metal nano-structures and came up with methods to observe how these bacteria cells attached to the different metal nano-structures. They found that tubular metallic structures are where the bacteria have the highest survival rate but on smooth flat surfaces, they found that these bacteria have the lowest survival rate. Staph bacteria are one of the most common sources of contamination in patients despite all of the strict sterilization regulations in hospital. They have found that around 1.2 million people contract Staph bacteria in hospitals each year. Staph bacteria is still a prevalent threat due to the fact it attaches to so many surfaces in the hospital and can cause many contagious infections. Even though recent research suggests that bacterial bonds are sensitive to different types of nano-structures, the specific method of adhesion is still a mystery to researchers. If researchers and scientists can find out how bacteria bind at molecular levels, they can also find out how they attach to these surfaces. The best part of the research is that it is developing a resistance to bacteria without using antibiotics which means that they don't have to worry about bacteria becoming resistant to any antibiotics.
Relevance:
This relates to our Microbes unit, specifically bacteria and antibiotics. We learned that Bacteria can be inhibited by household substances but this is another way to inhibit bacteria without the risk of overusing antibiotics. This is also an example of how we can inhibit or develop resistance to certain bacteria. We learned how bacteria can become resistant to antibiotics in our Evolution unit and by using this type of bacterial resistance, we can create a resistance in which we won't have to worry about overuse since bacteria won't have any antibiotics to adapt to.
How does the smooth surfaces kill the bacteria? Do the nano-structures even kill the bacteria directly, or are the bacteria just not able to 'bind' to the surface and end up elsewhere? This seemed relevant because there has been a study conducted of how a cicada's wings are spiky, not smooth, on the microscopic level, thus 'tearing' bacteria membranes and keeping the wings anti-bacterial. http://www.nature.com/news/insect-wings-shred-bacteria-to-pieces-1.12533
ReplyDeleteBy understanding how the bacteria binds to the surfaces then doctors can stop them from sticking to instruments in the hospital which is basically like saying the doctors can more effectively clean their stuff
DeleteWhat other surfaces are antibiotic resistant? What other surfaces harbor lots of bacteria? Why?
ReplyDeleteSo far all they found that is that tubular surfaces harbor lots of bacteria and flat surfaces aren't. They currently don't know why this happens as they don't know the the molecular basis of bacterial adhesion which they need to understand to be able to understand why they stick to these surfaces.
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