Development of an Electrospun Antimicrobial Coated Tampon for Management of Bacterial Vaginosis Biofilm

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The female vaginal tract has its own innate defence system that involves the natural microbiota, the vaginal epithelium and proteins including lactoferrin that help manage a healthy microbiome. In this project we are concerned with what happens when things go wrong with this balance. Bacterial vaginosis (BV) is a common vaginal infection with 1 in 3 pre-menopausal women in the UK suffering from BV at some point in their life. Intravaginal treatment can be impeded during menstruation and BV can often recur within a few weeks if not treated effectively. The aim of this project is to manage bacterial vaginosis through the development and testing of novel biomaterials. The student will benefit from training in the areas of materials processing (electrospinning), materials physicochemical characterisation and measuring anti-microbial efficacy using bioengineered tissue models. This PhD project will be supervised across disciplines and the student will receive training from 3 departments: Biomedical Engineering (BME), the Centre for Skin Sciences (CSS) and the Centre of Pharmaceutical Engineering Science (CPES) within the University of Bradford (UoB). Supervision and training will also be provided by Virustatic Ltd as industrial partner in the award.