I-Corps: Morphing surfaces for anti-fouling applications

I-Corps项目的更广泛影响/商业潜力将是开发一种新的防污方法，可以与其他现有方法协同使用。表面污染在很多情况下都会遇到：船舶的生物污染，医疗植入装置的生物污染，血液接触表面的血栓形成，矿物垢的形成，以及食品和化学工业中的各种污染物。表面污垢的成本很高，包括船舶燃料成本增加、化学工业热交换变差、医疗环境中的感染或重复手术以及水处理设备成本增加。这项技术为社会带来了广泛的好处，从减少植入医疗设备的感染，降低膜过滤的运营成本，到延长化学工业设备的使用寿命。这个I-Corps项目旨在评估一种新的防污表面方法的商业潜力。该策略的基本原理是将机械应力集中在污垢和表面之间的界面上，从而使污垢发生死粘。成功的体外实验表明，这一原理可以大大减少与血液或富含血小板的血浆接触的表面的污染。这些结果表明，无论表面的化学性质如何，该原理都可以应用。防污原理是纯机械的，因此可以与化学改性方法（如氟化）结合使用。目前，该技术正在与非医疗环境下的其他污染物进行评估，例如藻类生长或矿物垢的形成。

The broader impact/commercial potential of this I-Corps project would be in the development of a new approach to anti-fouling that can be used synergistically with other existing approaches. Surface fouling is encountered in a vast range of situations: biofouling of ships, biofouling of medical implant devices, thrombus formation on blood-contacting surfaces, mineral scale formation, and a variety of foulants in the food and chemicals industries. Surface fouling has high costs ranging from increased fuel cost in ships, poorer heat exchange in the chemical industry, infection or repeated surgery in the medical contexts, and increased equipment costs in water treatment. The technology offers wide-ranging benefits to society ranging from reduced infection of implanted medical devices, reduced operating costs in membrane filtration, and longer equipment life in the chemical industry.This I-Corps project seeks to evaluate the commercial potential of a new approach to anti-fouling surfaces. The fundamental principle underlying the strategy is to focus mechanical stress to the interface between the foulant and the surface, and thereby force deadhesion of the foulant. Successful in vitro experiments have been conducted showing that this principle can greatly reduce the fouling of surfaces placed in contact with blood or with platelet-enriched plasma. These results suggest that the principle can be applied regardless of the chemical nature of the surface. The anti-fouling principle is purely mechanical and therefore may be used in conjunction with chemical modification approaches, such as fluorination. The technology is presently being evaluated with other foulants in a non-medical context, for instance in algal growth or mineral scale formation.