KENTUCKY: $600K NSF-funded engineering research to combat medical device infections
Martha Grady’s, an associate professor in the Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering at the University of Kentucky, most recent project, “Mechanical Mechanisms of Biofilm Survival on Implant Surfaces,” Grady is the recipient of NSF’s prestigious Faculty Early Career Development (CAREER) Award. The program will provide Grady with $600,000 over five years to conduct research surrounding biofilm formation on medical device surfaces.
Grady is hoping to learn more about how these biofilms form on surfaces to help create strategies to decrease antibiotic resistance and combat medical device infections.
“A biofilm is individual bacteria that form this matrix — this surrounding ‘goo’ let's call it. And they live inside this goo, and that helps protect them from things like antibiotics. And it can cause destruction,” Grady explained. “Half a million Americans have dental implants. When bacteria attach themselves to the surface, they can form a colony. They grow together, they create this goo and that’s really hard to get rid of — either through antibiotics or through scraping. Eventually, that can cause disease progression to where the implant must be removed.”