UC Irvine

Pathogenic microbes, such as bacteria and fungi, often contaminate medical systems resulting in 1.7 million annual cases of hospital acquired infections, 99,000 annual deaths, and $16.6 billion spent in healthcare costs in US alone. Current solutions declining in efficacy are drug therapies, which have led to the rise of antimicrobial resistance and created an urgent need for alternative strategies. Here, the fabrication and physical antimicrobial effects of polymeric nanoimprinted surfaces based on bactericidal nanotopography inspired by nature are explored. A materials science and engineering approach is combined with microbiology and mechanobiology to further probe the cell-surface interface for the the ability of the bioinspired nanotopography to (1) hinder surface-attached Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacterial growth and virulence, (2) disrupt P. aeruginosa bacterial mechanoresponsive upstream motility in fluid flow, and (3) inhibit Aspergillus fumigatus and Fusarium oxysporum filamentous fungal growth demonstrating antimicrobial effects in a eukaryotic cell type system. This work promises broad applications for synergistic antimicrobial solutions in medically relevant systems and heralds’ new platforms to study mechanobiology.