Scientists and clinicians have been ringing alarm bells about antimicrobial resistance for decades. Yet as more and more “superbugs” repel more and more treatments, and more and more people die—at least 1.27 million in 2019, according to The Lancet—governments have done little to incentivize the development of new drugs by the public or private sector.
The most terrifying pathogens aren’t just multidrug resistant, they’re pan resistant: impervious to all known antibiotics. While doctors’ drug arsenals desperately need a boost, some researchers are focused on preventing infections before they start.
“At some point there’s nothing left,” says Dioscaris Garcia PhD’12, a microbiologist and assistant professor of orthopaedics (research). “You need something that is going to uncouple that cycle of, new antibiotic comes in, bacteria mounts a resistance, and then we’re back to square one.”
Garcia is a co-director of the Diane N. Weiss Center for Orthopaedic Trauma Research at Rhode Island Hospital, where he and co-director Christopher Born, MD, are developing technologies to stop bacteria from adhering to orthopedic implants, infiltrating wounds, and colonizing prosthetic liners. They’re also trying to speed up diagnosis with a test that locates and identifies offending microbes in minutes instead of days.
Born, a trauma surgeon and the Intrepid Heroes Professor of Orthopedic Surgery, began working years ago on a previously patented antimicrobial coating “weaponized” with silver carboxylate to reduce the formation of layers of microbes known as biofilms on surgical screws, catheters, and other hardware. “[Biofilms] are relatively impermeable to antibiotics and other means,” Born says. When they form, surgeons must remove the infected implant, clean the area as best they can, administer antibiotics, and hope for the best.