By some estimates, bacterial strains resistant to antibiotics — so-called superbugs — will cause more deaths than cancer by 2050.
Colorado State University biomedical and chemistry researchers are using creative tactics to subvert these superbugs and their mechanisms of invasion. In particular, they’re devising new ways to keep harmful bacteria from forming sticky matrices called biofilms — and to do it without antibiotic drugs.
Researchers from the laboratory of Melissa Reynolds, associate professor of chemistry and the School of Biomedical Engineering, have created a new material that inhibits biofilm formation of the virulent superbug Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Their material, described in Advanced Functional Materials, could form the basis for a new kind of antibacterial surface that prevents infections and reduces our reliance on antibiotics.

