Researchers are developing a 'smart' bandage that can draw bacteria out of wounds and speed up the healing process. Scientists in Australia have used a technique called electrospinning, in which polymer filaments 100 times thinner than a human hair are squeezed out of an electrified nozzle, to develop nanofiber meshes that can draw bacteria from a wound. In the first phase of research, polymer nanofibers were placed over the top of films of Staphylococcus aureus, a bacterium involved in chronic wound infection.
The researchers found the bacteria quickly attached to the fibers. When the fibers were smaller than the individual bacteria, fewer cells attached and those that did attach died as they attempted to wrap around the fiber. In the second phase, the tiny nanofibers were coated with different compounds and tested on the bacteria Escherichia coli, also commonly found in chronic…
