Tecnologies per llicenciar

Introduction

An estimated 60-80% of all microbial infections in humans are caused by biofilms, which are involved in a wide variety of pathological conditions. Biofilms are communities of microorganisms, including single or multiple bacterial species, that adhere to surfaces or to each other, embedded in a self-produced extracellular matrix. This matrix protects the bacteria forming the biofilm from antibiotics and the immune system.

Despite their high prevalence, current antibiofilm susceptibility testing methods in the routine hospital microbiology laboratories do not study the biofilm but focus solely on planktonic bacteria, as biofilm assessment requires specialized equipment, trained personnel, and is time-consuming. This can lead to ineffective patient treatment choices, as biofilm-associated bacteria often exhibit altered antibiotic susceptibility profiles, resulting in prolonged infections, increased healthcare costs, and poorer patient outcomes.

Moreover, current biofilm-based methodologies rely on confocal microscopy and expert personnel, complicating the determination of effective antibiotic treatments.

Description

The research group has developed a novel and user-friendly device, the XpertBiofilm, that simplifies biofilm cultivation and eliminates the need for complex imaging and specialized technical personnel, making it feasible for routine antimicrobial susceptibility testing of biofilms in hospital laboratories.

It consists of a sealed chamber that holds a round coupon as a biofilm growth substrate, and it includes an accessible injection port for microbial inoculation and treatment. The removable coupon allows biofilm analysis by microscopy or fluorescence-based quantification with standard laboratory microplate reader equipment, enabling antimicrobial susceptibility testing without complex imaging systems. Continuous media flowing through inlet and outlet tubing generates tunable shear stress, which correlates with biofilm biomass, supporting robust biofilm formation under physiologically relevant conditions.

Current stage of development

The device is validated at the proof-of-concept stage (TRL 3): biofilm antibiotic susceptibility in P. aeruginosa laboratory and clinical strains assessed, as well as in biofilms formed directly from cystic fibrosis (CF) sputum patient samples. The ciprofloxacin-susceptible P. aeruginosa PAO1 strain showed a significant reduction in biomass upon treatment, whereas the more resistant PAET1 strain and the extensively drug-resistant PA166 strains showed no significant response, consistent with their respective resistance profiles. Likewise, CF sputum-derived biofilms responded exclusively to antibiotics to which they were clinically susceptible, highlighting the device’s capacity to reflect patient-specific biofilm drug responses in a clinically relevant setting.