The flow-induced electromagnetic force (FI-EMF) technology is an antifouling technology that overcomes many disadvantages of existing antifouling materials and technologies. Unlike existing antifouling agents, this antifouling technology does not use antibiotics and therefore can be safely used not only for pharmaceutical and medical devices, but also for food processing, industrial and maritime applications. The FI-EMF Technology will help reduce the incidence of bacterial infection without causing antibiotic resistance of the bacteria. This project will develop prototypes of antifouling urinary catheter, cardiac stent and coated materials so as to define the regulatory pathway for this technology.
The proposed technology is innovative because it uses an alternative approach to antifouling products currently available. This technology could impact biomedical, clinical, food and ship building industries. From medical devices to industrial applications, this technology can be safely applied and promote human health by protecting people from bacterial infection. It is likely that the mechanism behind the FI-EMF antifouling technology will help the antifouling research community to better understand the process of bacterial and protein adhesion to medical devices and metal surfaces. The FI-EMF technology is expected to provide researchers in microbiology and biochemistry with valuable information on the relationship between microbes, chemical and electromagnetic effects in the surrounding environments.
I-Corps team at the University of Toledo was formed to perform the commercial assessment of the antifouling composite coating technology. In this project, the team conducted 103 interviews with potential customers including marina operators, nurses, hospital administrators, medical device suppliers, and medical researchers. The decision for commercialization was no go. Intellectual merit: The team learned that commercialization of antifouling technology needs redirection of focus areas. The focus area had been the urinary catheters that are prone to bacterial contamination. Bacterial contamination on urinary catheters known to cause huge medical costs and pain to patients. Making urinary catheters antifouling against bacteria was thought to be a valid commercialization idea. However, after 103 interviews, the team found that the antifouling urinary catheter market is not large enough to be profitable due to the existing economical catheters, and they are frequently replaced to prevent catheter-induced infection. Instead, the team learned that there is serious need for antifouling medical devices such as stents, peripherally inserted central catheters (PICC) and left ventricular assist devices (LVAD). These devices are high costs and hard to replace, and an effective antifouling coating can be regarded economically valid. Protein attachment to these devices are the main problem. Consequently the team decided to focus on anti-protein medical devices Broader impacts: The research on anti-protein agents for medical devices has significance impacts because of serious problems of protein adsorption in health care areas. It will be advantageous to investigation on bacterial biofouling also because protein fouling and bacterial fouling usually occur together.
