I-Corps: Commercialization of an Enzymatic Method for Biofilm Removal

I-Corps：生物膜去除酶法的商业化

• 批准号: 1612047
• 负责人: Bryan Berger
• 金额: $ 5万
• 依托单位: Lehigh University
• 依托单位国家: 美国
• 项目类别: Standard Grant
• 财政年份: 2015
• 资助国家: 美国
• 起止时间: 2015-12-01 至 2016-11-30
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/showAward?AWD_ID=1612047&HistoricalAwards=false
• 关键词: Corps; Commercialization; Enzymatic; Method; Biofilm

Bacteria have evolved a wide range of strategies to adhere to and grow on metallic and other physical surfaces. Disease causing bacteria produce a protective coating, known as biofilm, which shields the bacteria from chemical treatments while at the same time allowing them to attach to these physical surfaces. This has a major economic and health impact on manufacturing of packaged foods, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods as well as medical devices. A specific example is the health impact of foodborne illnesses caused by bacteria in the United States, where the estimated cost in terms of medical treatments, loss of work, resultant disability and mortality is at least $55 billion a year. Furthermore, preventing bacterial contamination throughout the food manufacturing process presents several unique challenges. While both industry and government agree that a solution to the increasing number of infections from food products is required, 'poultry processors have resisted, arguing that it would be expensive and ultimately futile, because Salmonella is so pervasive.' Thus, an effective solution to this and other similar challenges must (1) provide broad activity against a wide range of bacterial pathogens due to their prevalence throughout the manufacturing process and (2) do so in a cost-effective manner compatible with current manufacturing processes.This I-Corps team has developed a series of engineered enzymes, which are biological molecules that exhibit broad biofilm-degrading activity against a wide range of microbial biofilms. The enzymes retain activity in the presence of common additives used in commercial disinfectants, making them suitable as biocompatible disinfectants in food, pharmaceutical and other manufacturing processes. The proposed technology directly addresses a critical, unmet need to improve water quality, food safety, multi-drug resistance and thus well being of society through the development of enzyme-based technologies that can remove biofilm, which is a major factor that contributes to multidrug resistance and persistence. The I-Corps program will enable the team to identify an effective cost per use, which is key in benchmarking the effectiveness of the proposed approach relative to current enzyme technologies.

细菌已经发展出广泛的策略，以遵守并在金属和其他物理表面上生长。引起细菌的疾病会产生一种保护性涂层，称为生物膜，该涂层屏蔽了细菌免受化学处理的影响，同时允许它们附着在这些物理表面上。这对包装食品，药品和消费品以及医疗设备的制造具有重大的经济和健康影响。一个具体的例子是美国细菌引起的食源性疾病对医疗治疗，工作丧失，导致的残疾和死亡率的估计成本至少为550亿美元。此外，在整个食品制造过程中防止细菌污染提出了一些独特的挑战。 尽管行业和政府都同意需要解决食品中越来越多的感染的解决方案，但“家禽加工商已经抵制，认为这将是昂贵的，最终是徒劳的，因为沙门氏菌是如此普遍。” Thus, an effective solution to this and other similar challenges must (1) provide broad activity against a wide range of bacterial pathogens due to their prevalence throughout the manufacturing process and (2) do so in a cost-effective manner compatible with current manufacturing processes.This I-Corps team has developed a series of engineered enzymes, which are biological molecules that exhibit broad biofilm-degrading activity against a wide range of microbial biofilms.这些酶在商业消毒剂中使用的常见添加剂存在下保留活性，使其适合于食品，药品和其他制造过程中的生物相容性消毒剂。提出的技术直接解决了通过开发基于酶的技术来消除生物膜，这是提高水质，食品安全性，多药抵抗以及社会的重要需求，从而使社会成为社会，这是有助于多药耐药性和持久性的主要因素。 I-Corps计划将使团队能够确定每次使用的有效成本，这是基准相对于当前酶技术的拟议方法的有效性的关键。