Research team to develop advanced wound dressing

The €4.5m (£3.7m) European Commission-funded Bacteriosafe project is bringing together Bath University academics and the burns team at the Southwest UK Paediatric Burns Centre at Frenchay Hospital, Bristol, who will work with teams across Europe and Australia to create the advanced wound dressing.

The dressing will work by releasing antibiotics from nanocapsules triggered by the presence of disease-causing pathogenic bacteria, which will target treatment before the infection takes hold.

The dressing will also change colour when the antibiotic is released, alerting healthcare professionals that there is infection in the wound – a situation that can lead to toxic shock syndrome.

Dr Toby Jenkins, project leader from Bath University, told The Engineer that the dressing’s nanocapsules are made primarily of lipids – the same molecules that, in part, make up cell membranes.

‘The capsules are made by extruding a suspension of the lipids and fatty acids through a nanoporous membrane and irradiating with UV [ultraviolet] light,’ he said.