I-Corps: Commercialization of an Enzymatic Method for Biofilm Removal

细菌已经进化出一系列策略来附着在金属和其他物理表面上并在其上生长。致病细菌会产生一种名为生物膜的保护层，它可以保护细菌免受化学处理，同时允许它们附着在这些物理表面上。这对包装食品、药品和消费品以及医疗器械的制造具有重大的经济和健康影响。一个具体的例子是细菌引起的食源性疾病对健康的影响，在美国，每年在医疗、失业、由此导致的残疾和死亡方面的估计成本至少为550亿美元。此外，在整个食品生产过程中防止细菌污染是几个独特的挑战。虽然行业和政府都认为有必要解决食品感染人数不断增加的问题，但家禽加工商一直在抵制，他们认为，由于沙门氏菌非常普遍，解决方案将非常昂贵，而且最终是徒劳的。因此，有效地解决这一挑战和其他类似的挑战必须(1)对广泛的细菌病原体提供广泛的活性，因为它们在整个制造过程中都很普遍；(2)以与当前的制造过程兼容的经济高效的方式这样做。I-Corps团队开发了一系列工程酶，这些生物分子对广泛的微生物生物膜表现出广泛的生物膜降解活性。这些酶在商业消毒剂中使用的常见添加剂存在的情况下保持活性，使其适合作为食品、制药和其他制造过程中的生物兼容消毒剂。拟议的技术通过开发可去除生物膜的酶技术，直接解决了改善水质、食品安全、多重耐药，从而改善社会福祉的关键、未得到满足的需求，而生物膜是造成多重耐药和持久性的一个主要因素。I-Corps计划将使团队能够确定有效的每次使用成本，这是相对于当前酶技术对拟议方法的有效性进行基准测试的关键。

Bacteria have evolved a wide range of strategies to adhere to and grow on metallic and other physical surfaces. Disease causing bacteria produce a protective coating, known as biofilm, which shields the bacteria from chemical treatments while at the same time allowing them to attach to these physical surfaces. This has a major economic and health impact on manufacturing of packaged foods, pharmaceuticals and consumer goods as well as medical devices. A specific example is the health impact of foodborne illnesses caused by bacteria in the United States, where the estimated cost in terms of medical treatments, loss of work, resultant disability and mortality is at least $55 billion a year. Furthermore, preventing bacterial contamination throughout the food manufacturing process presents several unique challenges. While both industry and government agree that a solution to the increasing number of infections from food products is required, 'poultry processors have resisted, arguing that it would be expensive and ultimately futile, because Salmonella is so pervasive.' Thus, an effective solution to this and other similar challenges must (1) provide broad activity against a wide range of bacterial pathogens due to their prevalence throughout the manufacturing process and (2) do so in a cost-effective manner compatible with current manufacturing processes.This I-Corps team has developed a series of engineered enzymes, which are biological molecules that exhibit broad biofilm-degrading activity against a wide range of microbial biofilms. The enzymes retain activity in the presence of common additives used in commercial disinfectants, making them suitable as biocompatible disinfectants in food, pharmaceutical and other manufacturing processes. The proposed technology directly addresses a critical, unmet need to improve water quality, food safety, multi-drug resistance and thus well being of society through the development of enzyme-based technologies that can remove biofilm, which is a major factor that contributes to multidrug resistance and persistence. The I-Corps program will enable the team to identify an effective cost per use, which is key in benchmarking the effectiveness of the proposed approach relative to current enzyme technologies.