King's College London

Biofilm formation within the body resulting from indwelling medical devices, and within wounds, can result in serious chronic infections that are extremely difficult to treat. Biofilms have a major impact on the efficacy of antimicrobial therapies and provide protection from the host immune response. Along with increased horizontal gene transfer within biofilms, this contributes to antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and can lead to persistent and chronic infections. A major area of work across the MBRH is understanding the development of AMR in relationship to biofilm formation; but also developing new biofilm-related preventive measures and treatments for dental caries (tooth decay), fungal nail infection, implant related infections, and chronic wound infections. This also includes microbiome and phage-based medicines and the regulatory framework in this emerging area.

 

Antimicrobial resistance and biofilm therapeutics is a research project of the Multiscale Biofilm Research Hub. Find out more about the Hub here: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/research/mbrh.

Other research groups involved in the project include: Abbate, Banerjee, Cilibrizzi, Dyson, Edwards, Garnett, Hider, Jones, Lorenz, Mason, Molteni, Moyes, Panaretou, Rahman, Sedgwick, Sousa, Sutton