Bacterial biofilms constitute in excess of 65% of clinical microbial infections, with the antibiotic treatment of biofilm infections posing a unique challenge due to their high antibiotic tolerance. Recent studies performed in our group have demonstrated that a bioelectric effect featuring low-intensity electric signals combined with antibiotics can significantly improve the efficacy of biofilm treatment. In this work, we demonstrate the bioelectric effect using sub-micron thick planar electrodes in a microfluidic device. This is critical in efforts to develop microsystems for clinical biofilm infection management, including both in vivo and in vitro applications. Adaptation of the method to the microscale, for example, can enable the development of localized biofilm infection treatment using microfabricated medical devices, while augmenting existing capabilities to perform biofilm management beyond the clinical realm. Furthermore, due to scale-down of the system, the voltage requirement for inducing the electric field is reduced further below the media electrolysis threshold. Enhanced biofilm treatment using the bioelectric effect in the developed microfluidic device elicited a 56% greater reduction in viable cell density and 26% further decrease in biomass growth compared to traditional antibiotic therapy. This biofilm treatment efficacy, demonstrated in a micro-scale device and utilizing biocompatible voltage ranges, encourages the use of this method for future clinical biofilm treatment applications.
We present the first demonstration of a novel bacterial biofilm treatment technique showing a 56% average decrease in bacterial cell viability compared to traditional antibiotic treatments in a Micro-BOAT platform. Integrated linear array charge-coupled devices achieve spatially realized optical density monitoring, correlating to both average biomass and localized biofilm morphology. For on-chip demonstration of biofilm treatment, a unique bioelectric effect using a superpositioned direct and alternating current electric field is applied in the presence of antibiotics. Use of the platform demonstrated successful real-time monitoring of biofilm treatment and validated an on-chip bioelectric effect showing a decrease in both bacterial cell viability and overall biomass.
Abstract. The systematic design, validation, and verification of systems for biomedical experiments in laboratory and clinical applications are complex due to the highly stochastic nature of biological systems. This paper presents a platform framework for the modeling of these biological components in the context of system-level analysis that enables formal validation and verification of biomedical devices. Looking forward, the capabilities of this platform enable the development of more efficient and effective experimental biomedical systems.
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