Last week, researchers in Auburn University’s Samuel Ginn College of Engineering released their findings of a study conducted over the course of the past year.
The researchers produced antimicrobial coatings that prevent the spread of disease on contaminated surfaces.
The study is led by Virginia Davis, assistant professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering, and Aleksandr Simonian, professor of materials engineering in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. The research sheds light on the possibility of halting the spread of disease not just in hospitals, but also in schools, offices and other public facilities.
Davis and Simonian mixed solutions of lysozyme, a natural anti-microbial substance, with single-walled carbon nanotubes, or SWNTs, which are microscopic pieces of carbon 100 times stronger than steel.
Lysozyme, used in commercial products such as mouthwash, has been known to fight various forms of bacteria since its discovery, but it fails to fight bacteria for long periods of time. That’s where the SWNTs come into play.
“SWNTs are some of the strongest materials known to man,” Davis said.
Davis and Simonian found when both lysozyme and SWNTs are combined in a special coating, the SWNTs help keep the lysozyme intact, the result of which keeps bacteria away for extended periods of time.
When asked exactly how long, Davis replied, “We are still conducting long-term testing, but potentially for months.”
Davis, Simonian and the rest of their team successfully demonstrated the inability of Staphylococcus aureus cells, known to cause staph infections, from growing on antimicrobial surfaces.
Illnesses such as staph infections are rampant in hospitals across the country. According to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), a subsidiary of the National Institute of Health, around 500,000 hospital patients contract staph infections yearly.
Staph infections, according to the NIAID Web site, cause illnesses “that range from minor skin infections to life-threatening diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis, bone and joint infections and infections of the heart and bloodstream.”
Anthony Tortomase, a junior majoring in biology, is excited about the potential gains of such a breakthrough.
“With this new breakthrough, the future will hopefully yield a marketable product that will successfully prevent the spread of such illnesses, which will allow students to attend class more often,” Tortomase said. “It’s nice to see exciting research like this coming out of our University.”
Although the long term effects of the study won’t be known for quite some time, the possibilities are assuredly promising, according to Dr. Simonian.
Our results have a fantastic number of applications, many of which we have yet to see,” Simonian said. “We have been fortunate to have a unique combination of two groups, chemical and materials engineering, which gave us an advantage during our study,” Simonian said.
The hope is that within a matter of a few years, a product will be readily available to curb the spread of such harmful bacteria, and professors in the Samuel Ginn College of Engineering are the ones to thank.
