We’ve previously heard about wound dressings that kill bacteria, but now researchers at Britain’s Swinburne University of Technology are taking a different approach. They’re creating a dressing material that attracts bacteria out from within the wound, so that the material and the microbes can then just be pulled off and discarded.
Led by PhD candidate Martina Abrigo, the Swinburne team started by electrospinning polystyrene fibers that were up to 100 times thinner than a human hair. Meshes of these were then placed over films of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacteria that frequently infects wounds.
Because of the optimal growing conditions offered by the mesh, the bacteria quickly moved in and attached themselves to the fibers. This was particularly true when the fibers were approximately the same diameter as the individual bacterium – when they were smaller, less bacteria were attracted.
via Gizmag
