Lecture tip: Determination of the antimicrobial efficacy of functionalized surfaces
Susanne Finger, Clinic for Skin Diseases, University Hospital Jena
Abstracts:
In our everyday life we are always confronted with microorganisms. The ability of microorganisms to form persistent biofilms on surfaces is problematic for the medical sector, among others. Biofilms as microbial communities are highly resistant to external influences and have a high tolerance to antibiotics and disinfectants. The attachment of microorganisms to surfaces can be achieved, for example, by applying antimicrobial layers. The generation of antimicrobial coatings on universal substrates can be used to create new, innovative products. In order to be able to test the effectiveness of different coatings against different microorganisms in parallel, a screening method is required that enables the antimicrobial effectiveness of functionalized surfaces to be assessed efficiently, reliably and at the same time cost-effectively. Based on standard test procedures for the detection of antimicrobial activity, such as the International Standard for Testing the Antibacterial Activity of Surfaces (ISO 22196), a screening test was developed. With this test method, the handling of high sample numbers was simplified, so that different coatings and different microorganisms can be examined in parallel. In addition, the size of the test material and thus the required amount of coating reagent could be reduced.