Antimicrobial integrated methodologies for orthopaedic applications
Résumé
OBJECTIVES OF THE CONSORTIUM
AIMed is an Innovative Training Network (ITN) of 12 beneficiaries, 7 partners and 15 early
stage researchers (ESR) aiming to develop new biomaterials that will eventually result in fewer
orthopaedic infections, faster recovery of patients, and greatly reduced post-operative
healthcare costs. Indeed, nosocomial infections are a major issue for biomaterials incorporation
in the human body and reducing them is critical. AIMed will develop several complementary
approaches to :
Create new antimicrobial metallic, polymeric and ceramic surfaces by the use of
chemical and physical surface modification to allow functionalisation of surfaces with
antimicrobial peptides, doping with metal ion antibacterial agents and patterning of
surfaces at micro and nanoscale to study physical mechanisms underlying antimicrobial
action.
Create novel antimicrobial peptides mimicking the antimicrobial core of human alphaand
beta- defensins to realise antibacterial structures and use of molecular biology
techniques to identify the best possible sequences.
RESULTS AND MAIN FINDINGS of CERAMATHS in AIMed
CERAMATHS is involved in several parts of the project :
Synthesis of AMPs by molecular biology routes based on peptide design from UoB and
their comparison to chemical synyhesis process. Materials functionalisation is processed
via several techniques as biomimetic synthesis of ceramic powders (Ruđer Bošković
Institute, Croatia), polymer co-production (Universita degli studi di Trieste, Italy) and
peptide-surface interactions and release will be studied (Université Paul Sabatier Toulouse
III).
Biological characterization of new materials: antibacterial effects, cytotoxicity, cell
viability.Physical and biological characterisation of laser patterned substrates produced by
Institute of Electronics- Bulgarian Academy of Science, Bulgaria)