Lauren Davis
Copper surface kills bacteria in minutes © Stock.Adobe.com/au/Rawpixel
Images magnified 120,000 times under a scanning electron microscope show golden staph bacteria cells after two minutes on a) polished stainless steel, b) polished copper, and in c) and d), the team’s micro-nano copper surface.
Researchers from RMIT University and CSIRO have developed a new copper product that kills bacteria more than 100 times faster and more effectively than standard copper, and could therefore help combat the growing threat of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Their findings have been published in the journal Biomaterials. 14 | LAB+LIFE SCIENTIST - Feb/Mar 2022
A
An example of a potent microbial is nanosilver, which is currently used in medical devices such as internal catheters and wound dressings to fight or prevent infections, and has ccording to CSIRO’s Dr Daniel
also been incorporated into consumer products
Liang, researchers across the world are looking to
from soap and toothpaste to washing machines
develop new medical materials and devices that
and fridges. Unfortunately, researchers at the
can help reduce the rise of antibiotic-resistant
University of Technology Sydney’s (UTS) ithree
superbugs by reducing the need for antibiotics.
institute recently discovered that pathogens that
“Drug-resistant infections are on the rise and,
form biofilms can evolve to survive nanosilver
with limited new antibiotics coming onto the
treatment. Following prolonged treatment,
market, the development of materials resistant to
nanosilver killed 99.99% of the bacterium
bacteria will likely play an important role in helping
Pseudomonas aeruginosa with 0.01% of cells
address the problem,” Dr Liang said.
surviving for longer — and this minute fraction
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