Developing a model to test hand hygiene ingredients

Funding was successfully secured for collaboration with external partners to develop a biofilm model for testing active ingredients for hand hygiene.

Biofilm research

A number of our researchers are involved in work relating to preventing, detecting, managing or engineering biofilms. Biofilms are communities of microbes, and they can have an enormous impact on human life and the health of the planet.

Testing of skin disinfection formulations

There is a need for simple, affordable and effective procedures for screening hand disinfectant products. Dr Susana Direito the lead and Principal Investigator of the project will work with colleagues from the School’s Institute for Condensed Matter and Complex Systems (Aidan Brown, Job Thijssen, Andreia Fonseca da Silva and Paul Hush), and industrial partners Bear Valley Ventures (Walter Gibson) and Aqualution Systems Limited (Nick Meakin and Michelle Lewis), to develop a human skin biofilm model that can be used for high-throughput testing of novel skin disinfection formulations. It is hoped that use of the model will lead to the development of new hand hygiene products to improve health around the world.

Project funding

Funding for this project was received from the National Biofilms Innovation Centre (NBIC) as part of their forth Proof of Concept. A total of 18 biofilm-related projects have been funded by NBIC during this latest round, which cover a wide range of sectors including health, hygiene, industrial processing, food, water, oral care, personal care, anaerobic digestion, waste and wastewater and biotechnology.