When Mark Shirtliff was studying for his doctorate in microbiology he learned that bacteria can band together into sheets - called biofilms, which alters their behavior and allows them to form complex communities, establish lines of communication and coordinate their actions. These stronger, nastier microbes find power in numbers and become 50 to 500 times more resistant to antibiotics.
Shirtliff has focused on methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, better known as MRSA, which, according to the CDD, kills about 90,000 people in the United States every year. Shirtliff is searching for a way to prevent the films from growing in an effort to prevent people from getting a MRSA infection in the first place. Read more online.
"Shirtliff, an assistant professor at the University of Maryland Dental School received $1.25 million this month from the National Institutes of Health for research into vaccines that might prevent the deadly films from forming in the first place. Although the public rarely hears it in popular discussions of health issues, the term 'biofilm' was coined in a 1978 Scientific American article by William Costerton, now of the University of Southern California Dental School. 'It came up in dentistry first,' Costerton said. 'They called it plaque. I just proposed (that) the biofilm isn't just in the mouth, but everywhere."It's true - these biofilms coat everything from river rocks to neglected teeth to ship hulls, oil pipelines and machinery. In addition to causing skin infections in people, they cause billions of dollars of damage by corroding metal surfaces and clogging up the works.
Shirtliff has focused on methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus, better known as MRSA, which, according to the CDD, kills about 90,000 people in the United States every year. Shirtliff is searching for a way to prevent the films from growing in an effort to prevent people from getting a MRSA infection in the first place. Read more online.
posted by Super Clean Gear at 9:54 PM
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