Bacterial Surface Sensing to Stick or not to Stick?. (360G-Wellcome-103884_Z_14_Z)

£933,419

How can we control bacterial attachment to man-made surfaces? To prevent medical-device related infections in the post-antibiotic era, we propose to answer these two specific but interlinked questions: i) How do bacteria respond dynamically to polymer surfaces? ii) What intra- and inter-cellular signalling mechanisms do bacteria employ to sense and respond to polymer surfaces? Bacteria prefer to adopt surface-associated rather than suspended, planktonic lifestyles since they off er survival advantages including improved access to nutrients and protection from predation [1]. Surface growth has important implications for bioenergy, biofouling and infection. Bacteria will attach to almost any surface and in the context of healthcare, medical-device centred infections pose an enormous healthcare threat particularly in this era of multi-antibiotic resistant super-bugs. Following an initial reversible attachment phase, bacterial cells become irreversibly surface-attached lead ing to biofilm development which is difficult to prevent or treat. Consequently we urgently need to better understand bacteria-material surface interactions to facilitate discovery of novel anti-adherence materials. With Wellcome Trust translational funding, we successfully pioneered a high-throughput materials discovery strategy using polymer microarrays[2,3]. By correlating multi-species bacterial attachment with surface chemistry navigated using multivariate analysis of surface mass spect ral information in over 20,000 assays using over 1300 unique copolymers, we discovered a new class of synthetic acrylate polymers which resist attachment both in vitro and in vivo [2] (Fig.1). These bacteria resistant polymer (BRP) chemistries could not have been predicted from our current understanding of bacterial responses to materials. The mechanism by which these BRPs resist attachment is however not understood. Bacterial attachment processes cannot be explained in simple physicochemi cal terms or without considering the dynamic adaptive behaviour of bacterial cells [4,5]. While there is a significant knowledge of bacterial surface macromolecules and their role in attachment, the tactile and sensory mechanisms bacteria employ to sense that they are on or near a specific surface and to decide whether or not to stick remain poorly understood[1]. Here we offer an interdisciplinary approach, combining materials science (controllable surfaces) and molecular microbiology, in conjun ction with high resolution state-of-the-art imaging exploiting the extensive material chemistry and attachment phenotypes obtained previously [2,3] to address the following overarching question and sub-questions below. These fundamental questions are completely outside our Wellcome Trust Translational Award which was directed towards the discovery and development of new BRP chemistries.

Where is this data from?

This data was originally published by The Wellcome Trust. If you see something about your organisation or the funding it has received on this page that doesn't look right you can submit a grantee amendment request. You can hover over codes from standard codelists to see the user-friendly name provided by 360Giving.

Grant Details

Amount Awarded 933419
Applicant Surname Williams
Approval Committee Science Interview Panel
Award Date 2014-04-01T00:00:00+00:00
Financial Year 2013/14
Grant Programme: Title Investigator Award in Science
Internal ID 103884/Z/14/Z
Lead Applicant Prof Paul Williams
Partnership Value 933419
Planned Dates: End Date 2022-04-30T00:00:00+00:00
Planned Dates: Start Date 2014-11-01T00:00:00+00:00
Recipient Org: Country United Kingdom
Region East Midlands