(104f) Invited Speaker: Responsive Antibacterial and Antifungal Biomaterials for Infection Treatment

The World Health Organization has warned of an impending “post antibiotic era” in which common infections are lethal due to rising antimicrobial resistance. Microbes inherently evolve resistance mechanisms over time, the rates of which can be exacerbated by overuse of broad-spectrum antimicrobials and prolonged exposure at sub-inhibitory concentrations. Compounding this issue is the lack of discovery of new antimicrobial agents. I will describe our recent work on developing biomaterials, which can effectively treat microbial infections before further resistance can develop. Specifically, I will discuss the development of antimicrobial hydrogels and thin films that have been formulated to deliver small molecule antibiotics and antifungal agents, repurposed FDA-approved molecules with antimicrobial properties, and antimicrobial and antibiofilm peptides. We have formulated these highly tunable materials using modifications to synthetic and naturally-derived polymers, including gellan gum and poly(ethylene glycol). Our biomaterials exhibit a range of drug release behaviors (e.g., triggered-, swelling-, and diffusion-based release) and mechanical properties, and have demonstrated promising antimicrobial efficacy (eradication of gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria and several opportunistic fungi). I will focus primarily on describing (1) the microbial enzyme-triggered release of antifungal and antibiotic molecules from these materials and (2) the development of hydrogels exhibiting antibiofilm characteristics via the incorporation of antibiofilm peptides.