/ News
Non-stick coating gives biofilms the slip
A new class of material has been created that bacteria find incredibly hard to stick to. An estimated 80% of infections acquired in hospitals involve sticky biofilms of bacteria that build up on surfaces and it is challenging is to reduce their growth on medical devices, such as catheters.
Inspired by high throughput drug discovery, a team of UK and US scientists printed hundreds of materials onto glass and tested whether disease-causing bacteria could stick to them. These polymer microarrays showed that coating silicone with non-stick materials reduced the bacteria coverage by over 95%, compared with a commercial silver hydrogel coating.
‘The materials used in the clinic at the moment, such as silicone rubber, were not designed as biomedical materials,’ says co-author Morgan Alexander at the University of Nottingham, UK. To stop the growth of biofilms, medical devices are often given toxic coatings to kill bacteria.
There was no link found between bacterial attachment and surface element composition, water contact angle or roughness in the first-generation array of 496 materials. The new class of materials are acrylate/methacrylate polymers and the six most resistant to bacterial attachment also contained cyclic or aromatic pendant groups, suggesting that these structures are vital.
The new structurally related materials substantially reduced attachment of opportunistic bacteria, such as Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Staphylococcus aureus and Escherichia coli. Coating silicone catheters with one such polymer reduced biofilm growth in tests with mice, compared with a control catheter. And unlike coatings which kill pathogens, the anti-attachment mechanism has the advantage that it should not introduce an evolutionary pressure that bacteria will seek to overcome.
The high throughput approach was an admission that we don’t understand biological responses to the surface and that it was best to access a wide range of materials, Alexander says. ‘This new class of materials is a complete revelation to us.’
‘A nice aspect of this work is the extension to in vivo assessment of a “hit” material, as all too often antibacterial coatings have shown promise in vitro but in vivo there was no analogous clear cut benefit,’ says Hans Griesser, professor of surface science at the University of South Australia. ‘While surfaces with broad antifouling properties, for example PEG coatings and analogous hydrogels, have been known for a while, this work has identified material surfaces with quite different, non-hydrogel compositions.’
Urinary catheters were targeted in this Wellcome-funded project. 'There is a significant rate of infection with them,’ explained Alexander, and the current strategy to reduce infection, mainly silver-based coatings, is ‘not very effective’. The next challenge is to persuade the medical device industry that the lab materials can be work in a clinical setting, Alexander says.
Source: http://www.rsc.org/chemistryworld/2012/08/non-stick-coating-gives-biofilms-slip
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Founded by Russian entrepreneur Dmitry Itskov in February 2011 with the participation of leading Russian specialists in the field of neural interfaces, robotics, artificial organs and systems.
The main goals of the 2045 Initiative: the creation and realization of a new strategy for the development of humanity which meets global civilization challenges; the creation of optimale conditions promoting the spiritual enlightenment of humanity; and the realization of a new futuristic reality based on 5 principles: high spirituality, high culture, high ethics, high science and high technologies.
The main science mega-project of the 2045 Initiative aims to create technologies enabling the transfer of a individual’s personality to a more advanced non-biological carrier, and extending life, including to the point of immortality. We devote particular attention to enabling the fullest possible dialogue between the world’s major spiritual traditions, science and society.
A large-scale transformation of humanity, comparable to some of the major spiritual and sci-tech revolutions in history, will require a new strategy. We believe this to be necessary to overcome existing crises, which threaten our planetary habitat and the continued existence of humanity as a species. With the 2045 Initiative, we hope to realize a new strategy for humanity's development, and in so doing, create a more productive, fulfilling, and satisfying future.
The "2045" team is working towards creating an international research center where leading scientists will be engaged in research and development in the fields of anthropomorphic robotics, living systems modeling and brain and consciousness modeling with the goal of transferring one’s individual consciousness to an artificial carrier and achieving cybernetic immortality.
An annual congress "The Global Future 2045" is organized by the Initiative to give platform for discussing mankind's evolutionary strategy based on technologies of cybernetic immortality as well as the possible impact of such technologies on global society, politics and economies of the future.
Future prospects of "2045" Initiative for society
2015-2020
The emergence and widespread use of affordable android "avatars" controlled by a "brain-computer" interface. Coupled with related technologies “avatars’ will give people a number of new features: ability to work in dangerous environments, perform rescue operations, travel in extreme situations etc.
Avatar components will be used in medicine for the rehabilitation of fully or partially disabled patients giving them prosthetic limbs or recover lost senses.
2020-2025
Creation of an autonomous life-support system for the human brain linked to a robot, ‘avatar’, will save people whose body is completely worn out or irreversibly damaged. Any patient with an intact brain will be able to return to a fully functioning bodily life. Such technologies will greatly enlarge the possibility of hybrid bio-electronic devices, thus creating a new IT revolution and will make all kinds of superimpositions of electronic and biological systems possible.
2030-2035
Creation of a computer model of the brain and human consciousness with the subsequent development of means to transfer individual consciousness onto an artificial carrier. This development will profoundly change the world, it will not only give everyone the possibility of cybernetic immortality but will also create a friendly artificial intelligence, expand human capabilities and provide opportunities for ordinary people to restore or modify their own brain multiple times. The final result at this stage can be a real revolution in the understanding of human nature that will completely change the human and technical prospects for humanity.
2045
This is the time when substance-independent minds will receive new bodies with capacities far exceeding those of ordinary humans. A new era for humanity will arrive! Changes will occur in all spheres of human activity – energy generation, transportation, politics, medicine, psychology, sciences, and so on.
Today it is hard to imagine a future when bodies consisting of nanorobots will become affordable and capable of taking any form. It is also hard to imagine body holograms featuring controlled matter. One thing is clear however: humanity, for the first time in its history, will make a fully managed evolutionary transition and eventually become a new species. Moreover, prerequisites for a large-scale expansion into outer space will be created as well.
Key elements of the project in the future
• International social movement
• social network immortal.me
• charitable foundation "Global Future 2045" (Foundation 2045)
• scientific research centre "Immortality"
• business incubator
• University of "Immortality"
• annual award for contribution to the realization of the project of "Immortality”.
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