Grants and Contributions:

Grant or Award spanning more than one fiscal year. (2017-2018 to 2018-2019)

Chelation Partners (CP) Co. develops highly efficient iron-binding polymer molecules that remove biologicallyx000D
available iron, making pathogens thousands of times more susceptible to antibiotics. For example, CPx000D
developed the chelator DIBI, which is effective in inhibiting the growth of Gram-positive bacteria,x000D
Gram-negative bacteria, and fungi in laboratory culture. However, many bacteria are well known to formx000D
biofilms, which contains group of bacteria cells sticking to each other and embedded within a self-producedx000D
extracellular polymeric substance-based matrix. The bacterial cells growing in a biofilm are different fromx000D
planktonic cells of the same organism, which are free-moving single cells in a liquid medium. The strikingx000D
difference of the bacteria in a biofilm is their much higher resistance to antibiotics than the planktonic ones.x000D
Therefore, it would be desirable to develop technology that can sensitize the biofilm to antibiotics. Since iron isx000D
critical for biofilm growth, CP hypothesizes that the chelators DIBI may be effective to sensitize biofilmx000D
towards antibiotic treatment. This project is proposed to test the idea with experimental evidence. Thex000D
knowledge obtained in the project is important for CP to explore the full value of its product and make decisionx000D
on how to incorporate the results into its product streams.