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STIMULAN – microbiologist’s view

In this Biocomposites Education series, Professor Stoodley shares his views on STIMULAN

What are the advantages of using STIMULAN as an antibiotic carrier?
00:44
Can you use STIMULAN to attack multi-species of biofilm?
00:52
How does STIMULAN help with the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance?
01:11
What do you like about working with Biocomposites?
00:44
Professor Paul Stoodley

Biofilm Microbiologist

‘It’s very important to use STIMULAN to be able to get antibiotics where they’re needed, high concentrations for long periods of time, to totally kill the entire biofilm.’

Q & A
What are the advantages of using STIMULAN as an antibiotic carrier?

Well one of the advantages of STIMULAN as an antibacterial carrier to treat biofilm infections, is that it releases the antibiotic over a sustained period of time. And research that we’ve done in our labs and in other labs has shown that to kill biofilm, what is needed is really high concentrations of antibiotic right where the biofilm is, and it needs to be exposed for long periods of time.

Can you use STIMULAN to attack multi-species of biofilm?

One of the advantages of working with STIMULAN is it has a very low temperature setting, so it’s highly compatible with a wide range of antibiotics such as vancomycin, tobramycin and gentamicin. Often biofilm infections are polymicrobial where we might have gram-positive organisms such as Staphylococci and gram-negative organisms. And so by being able to mix these antibiotics depending on the clinical microbiology we can actually attack multi-species biofilm.

How does STIMULAN help with the global challenge of antimicrobial resistance?

A big issue with inappropriate use of antibiotics is that a lower dose than the minimum inhibitory concentration it takes to kill the biofilm or bacteria is administered. Bacteria can develop mutations, they can pass genes from one to the other, and that can spread resistance. Now we know that biofilms are very tolerant to antibiotics, and what we need with biofilms is very high concentrations of antibiotics. Enough to kill all of those bacteria in the biofilm. Of course, dead bacteria can mutate, so until new antimicrobial strategies or more effective systemic antibiotics against biofilm bacteria are available, it’s very important to use STIMULAN to be able to get those antibiotics where they’re needed at high concentrations for long periods of time to totally kill the entire biofilm.

What do you like about working with Biocomposites?

I’ve had a very good relationship with Biocomposites for about 10 years now, and one of the things I really like about working with them is they’re very conducive in terms of discussing experimental design, always been very open about publishing the results, and always have a concern that the experiments are done robustly and rigorously.

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All rights reserved. No unauthorized copying, reproduction, distributing or republication is allowed unless prior written permission is granted by the owner, Biocomposites Ltd. The opinions expressed in these videos and transcript are solely those of the presenter, they do not purport to reflect or represent the opinions or views of Biocomposites Ltd. Some comments relate to in vitro studies and may not correlate to clinical use.