Drip Flow Biofilm Reactor Research Paper Link: A multimodel regime for evaluating effectiveness of antimicrobial wound care products in microbial biofilms
During this uncertain period caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, we thought this Drip Flow Biofilm Reactor research paper spotlight should highlight medical biofilms as a tribute to the research that goes on behind the scenes to ensure a healthy population, both in and out of the hospital environment. Doctors and nurses are fighting infections in hospitals every single day, and continue to fight bacterial infections even as this viral pandemic takes hold. Infections don’t stop just because there is something else at play, and so the research published in papers such as this one are important to help fight infections faster to avoid compounding medical issues in hospitals.
On March 16th, 2020, the above-linked paper was published by a 3M-funded laboratory. This research used a modified version of the Drip Flow Biofilm Reactor®. The researchers attached cellulose pads to glass slides inside the reactor, which were used to model wounds. The study aimed to learn more about chronic wound infections caused by bacterial pathogens, including Staphylococcus, Enterococcus, Streptococcus, among others, as well as some multi-species biofilms. Bacterial infections caused by biofilms such as these have been increasingly identified as a major cause of chronic wounds and frequently prevents them from healing naturally. After growing the biofilms, they were treated with different antimicrobials to try to understand the different effects they would have on wounds.
Statistically relevant differences were found after treating the biofilms and finding a cell count of the remaining biofilm cells on the wound models. These differences were compared, and the researchers identified the two most effective treatments among the tested treatments(these were the iodine and benzalkonium chloride‐containing products). These products were then moved to in vivo testing, where the benzalkonium chloride showed significantly better treatment results than the iodine product. This research showed that biofilm reactor models were effective at quickly testing a large number of different biofilm/treatment types, before moving on to in vivo trials. Read the full article at the link above.
The Drip Flow Biofilm Reactor® is one of BioSurface Technologies’ core reactors. It has been used around the world to study countless biofilms like the one discussed in this paper. More publications involving Drip Flow Biofilm Reactor research can be found by searching “Drip Flow Biofilm Reactor” on Google Scholar.
