Biomimicry in Medicine: Sharkskin-Inspired Material Stops Bacterial Breakouts

[Are_grits_groceries]

Slippery When Wet Similar to the texture of sharkskin, Sharklet’s three-micrometer-wide diamond-shaped pattern prevents bacteria from taking root.

A whale’s skin is easily glommed up with barnacles, algae, bacteria and other sea creatures, but sharks stay squeaky-clean. Although these parasites can pile onto a shark’s rippled skin too, they can’t take hold and thus simply wash away. Now scientists have printed that pattern on an adhesive film that will repel bacteria pathogens from hospitals and public restrooms.

Patented by Sharklet Technologies, a Florida-based biotech company, the film, which is covered with microscopic diamond-shaped bumps, is the first “surface topography” proven to keep the bugs at bay. In tests in a California hospital, for three weeks the plastic sheeting’s surface prevented dangerous microorganisms, such as E. coli and Staphylococcus A, from establishing colonies large enough to infect humans.

Bacteria have an easier time spreading out on smooth surfaces, says CEO Joe Bagan: “We think they come across this surface and make an energy-based decision that this is not the right place to form a colony.” Because it doesn’t kill the bacteria, there’s also little chance of the microbes evolving resistance to it. Hey, it’s worked for sharks for 400 million years.

That’s good news for hospitals, where infections from drug-resistant superbacteria like MRSA, a potentially fatal strain of staph, are becoming commonplace. Bagan hopes to stick the skin on nursing call buttons, bed rails, tray tables and other surfaces by next year. Pending FDA approval, the shark pattern could be manufactured directly onto bacteria hotbeds like catheters and water containers by 2012.

http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2009-10/saving-skin

Muh.... That's a new way to approach the problem.

[Warpy]

1. This is great stuff

and has a lot of applications in the kitchen, too, both commercial and domestic.

[RaleighNCDUer]

2. I wonder if they can make it tough enough for things like cutting boards

and counter tops for restaurants.

[Are_grits_groceries]

3. Probably.

If the adhesive film could be some material that was very hard, it might work.

[Warpy]

4. There is no reason it can't be embossed into most plastics

or laser cut if it's too small to be stamped.

It will likely be quite expensive, though.

I can see the film itself all sorts of places that are microbe flophouses, from multiple user computer keyboards to shopping cart handles. A quick wipe with a tissue would be all that would be needed between users to keep them clean, no matter how germy the previous user had been.

[Are_grits_groceries]

5. That's true.

This could be a major breakthrough.

Football teams have had a hell of a time with MRSA. The only solution is to thoroughly clean places. However, it's almost impossible to clean all surfaces. This could stop a huge outbreak before it starts.

[RaleighNCDUer]

6. first place it will be used? Military barracks and showers -

oh, wait, those are all handled by KBR and such, and that would cut into their profits.