4 million to tackle spread of bacterial infections

The University of Liverpool has been awarded £4million for a research and innovation hub to help businesses find new ways of preventing the spread of bacterial, viral and fungal infections.

The `Open Innovation Hub for Antimicrobial Surfaces' will design and develop a new generation of surfaces and materials that are capable of inhibiting the spread of these infections.

There is significant global demand for products that prevent microbes from growing on surfaces from a wide range of sectors including medical, food and beverage processing, and shipping. The NHS alone spends £2bn on infection control in UK hospitals, and anti-infective surfaces have a crucial role in helping to combat the threat of antimicrobial resistance.

Professor Rasmita Raval, Director of the Open Innovation Hub for Antimicrobial Surfaces, said: "We will work with enterprising local companies to develop and deliver innovative anti-infective surface technologies, which have commercial applications across medical and industrial sectors.

"It is the only antimicrobial centre in the UK with such scope and scale to design and deliver advanced anti-infective surfaces, and will establish Liverpool as the UK's premier industry-facing antimicrobial materials centre."

Funded by the European Regional Development Fund, the Hub's state-of-the-art facilities will look at the behaviour of bacteria on surfaces such as textiles, plastics and metals to understand how their growth and spread can be stopped by engineering the materials that people come into contact with in their homes, work place, and hospitals.

The Open Innovation Hub will help local small and medium sized companies access new technologies, collaborate on research projects and link to large scale purchasers, including multinational companies, to develop new supply chains and market-ready products.

Provided by University of Liverpool