Engineering antimicrobial hospital materials is not a new idea, but that doesn't mean there aren't still big advances to be made. British firm Camstent is wagering a polymer coating it has developed will be a more effective innovation than many of the infection-fighting materials currently on the market.
The company just closed an approximately $1.1 million round to further the development of its "bacteria-phobic" polymer coating, according to Cambridge News. As opposed to traditional antimicrobials, which have compounds built into them that ward off infectious bacteria, Camstent's coating changes the makeup of physical surfaces to make them inhospitable to pathogens, which reduces likelihood of infection and colonization.
"Hospital-acquired infections are a serious issue for both patients and healthcare providers, adding to costs and leading to needless deaths around the world," Joe Byrne, COO of Camstent, told Cambridge News. "Current antimicrobial coatings for medical devices fail to prevent infection, but our innovative patented polymer coating has been proven in the lab to … inhibit biofilm formation."
Biofilm formation is one of the initial stages of bacterial colonization in which microorganisms cluster and stick to a surface.
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