Characterization of Antimicrobial Properties
The high-throughput characterization of antimicrobial coatings for biomedical applications is achieved with the multi-well plate technology utilized to screen antifouling coatings for ship hull applications. However, instead of employing marine bacteria and algae, microorganisms associated with infection of implanted medical devices are used in the screening assays. As with the marine coating characterizations, biofilm based assays are predominantly utilized to assess the antimicrobial properties of the coatings due to their relevance and contribution to chronic and persistent infections.
Microorganisms
A variety of microorganisms implicated in medical device related infections are used to screen antimicrobial coatings. This includes the use of Gram-negative (i.e., P. aeruginosa, E. coli) and Gram-positive (S. epidermidis, S. aureus) bacteria as well as yeast (C. albicans) to evaluate the broad-spectrum antimicrobial activity of coating candidates.
