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For the 75 million people who require a urinary catheter, urinary tract infections are a serious concern. Catheters are prone to colonization by bacterial and fungal pathogens, which causes antibiotic-resistant infections. An infection can also lead to pH changes in the urine and block a catheter due to stone formation with potentially fatal consequences. Catheter associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs) that are antibiotic resistant cause 13,000 deaths in the U.S. each year.

College of Engineering and Computer Science professors Dacheng Ren, Stevenson endowed professor of biomedical and chemical engineering and associate dean for research and graduate programs; Teng Zhang, assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering; and Huan Gu, research assistant professor and Upstate Medical Universitys Dmitriy Nikolavsky, MD, associate professor of Urology, were awarded an National Institutes of Health (NIH) R01 grant for a project aiming to engineer a new urinary catheter using smart biomaterials to reduce catheter associated complications.

Conventional antibiotics commonly fail to eradicate infections associated with medical devices because of the remarkable capabilities of microbes to colonize these surfaces and form drug-resistant biofilms. To solve this challenging problem, we need new strategies that can provide long-term protections. This R01 project gave us an exciting opportunity to do exactly that, said Ren, the principal investigator of this project.

Rens lab has developed a new strategy designed to make catheters smarter and more resistant to infection. They successfully created micron-sized pillars with supermagnetic nanoparticles on the tip so the pillars can beat in response to an electromagnetic field generated using an insulated copper coil embedded in the catheter wall. By controlling the on and off of an electric current, they could turn the magnetic field on and off, and thus control the beating frequency and beating force of the pillars. This strategy (active topography) worked well, as these moving pillars prevented biofilm formation of multiple bacterial species by up to 99.9% compared to flat control surfaces. A prototype catheter with active topography remained clean for 30 days while the control catheters were blocked by biofilms of uropathogenicEscherichia coliwithin five days in an in vitro test with flow of a medium mimicking urine. Their study was published in a recent issue ofNature Communications.

Now Ren, Gu, Zhang and Nikolavsky will move forward and study the mechanism of infection control by such active topographies, and further engineer their catheter porotype for in vivo tests in this R01 project. By optimizing micron sized pillars on the catheter wall, they hope to develop a self-cleaning catheter that would be much safer for long term use.

This strategy is inspired by the motile cilia in human airways that protects our lungs from foreign particles during respiration, said Gu. Thanks to the development in materials and surface engineering, we can replicate this defense strategy, make it more robust and adaptable, and apply it to address challenges such as biofilm-associated urinary tract infections in this project.

Numerical simulations from Zhangs lab and the collaboration with Nikolavsky in Upstate Medical Universitys urology department are key components to the potentially groundbreaking work.

Biofilms are highly complicated biological materials with active bacteria embedded in polymer networks. This poses challenges and provides opportunities to integrate mechanics modeling and simulations with well-controlled experiments to uncover the working mechanism and design principles of medical devices.

Zhang has been collaborating with the Ren lab prior to this award and he is also a co-author of the Nature Communications paper.

If successful, the findings from this study may also help solve other infections that involve microbial biofilms, especially those associated with medical devices.

I am very excited about this design of smart catheters, Bacterial colonization and biofilm formation on catheters, stents and other implantable devices is an enormous problem in medicine, said Nikolavsky. Creating such smart surfaces on catheters that would actively expel pathogens, could potentially prevent bacterial colonization, catheter-associated urinary tract infections and may save patients with chronic catheters from bladder stone formation and recurrent catheter encrustation and clogging. I expect this will improve medical care and have positive effect on quality of life for many patients and prevent some of the common urological emergencies.

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Engineering and Computer Science Faculty Awarded Grant for Catheter Research Project - Syracuse University News

The National Academy of Sciences and American Academy of Arts andSciences announced their newly elected members this week, expanding their ranks by 11 and 25UC faculty, respectively.

Membership in these prestigious organizations puts one in distinguished company.

The National Academy of Sciences was established in 1863 under President Abraham Lincoln to recognize achievement in science. Along with the National Academy of Engineering and the National Academy of Medicine, members provide advice to the federal government on matters related to science, engineering and health. Its 2021 class includes 11 faculty from across five UC campuses who join an elite group of 2,461 active members (511 additional members are internationally-affiliated). This year, NAS elected 59 women among its 120 new members, representing a new record and near parity for its class.

The American Academy of Arts andSciences is an honorary society and independent research center that convenes leaders from across disciplines and professions to address significant challenges. More than 13,500 members have been elected since 1780, when it was founded by John Adams, John Hancock and others. 252 new members join the organization as part of its 2021 class, including 25UC faculty from eight campuses.

Congratulations to all of UCs newly elected members in both academies. They are:

Arturo Alvarez-Buylla, Heather and Melanie Muss Chair, department of neurological surgery, University of California, San Francisco

David Card, Class of 1950 Professor of Economics, department of economics, University of California, Berkeley

Glenn H. Fredrickson, Mitsubishi Chemical Chair in Functional Materials, department of chemical engineering, University of California, Santa Barbara

N. Louise Glass, professor and chair, department of plant and microbial biology, University of California, Berkeley

Holly A. Ingraham, Hertzstein Distinguished Investigator, professor, and associate vice chairman, department of cellular and molecular pharmacology, University of California, San Francisco

Kenneth Lange, Rosenfeld Professor of Computational Genetics, department of computational medicine and departments of human genetics and statistics, University of California, Los Angeles

Isabel P. Montaez, distinguished professor and chancellor's leadership professor, department of earth and planetary sciences, University of California, Davis

Denise J. Montell, Duggan Professor, department of molecular, cellular, and developmental biology, University of California, Santa Barbara

Geeta J. Narlikar, professor, department of biochemistry and biophysics, University of California, San Francisco

Linda Petzold, distinguished professor, department of computer science, University of California, Santa Barbara

Michael Turelli, distinguished professor and Joel Keizer Endowed Chair in Theoretical and Computational Biology, department of evolution and ecology, University of California, Davis

Thelists below present the American Academy of Arts and Sciences newest members grouped in thethirty sections,organized within five classes, in which they were elected. The academy has elected members by class and section since 1815.

Joseph Incandela, Joe and Pat Yzurdiaga Chair in Experimental Science, professor of physics, University of California, Santa Barbara

Marilyn N. Raphael, interim director of the Institute of the Environment and Sustainability and professor of geography, University of California, Los Angeles

Stefan Savage, professor of computer science and engineering, University of California, San Diego

Jodi M. Nunnari, distinguished professor and chair of the Department of Molecular and Cellular Biology, College of Biological Sciences, University of California, Davis

James A. Estes, professor of ecology & evolutionary biology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Tyrone B. Hayes, professor of integrative biology, University of California, Berkeley

Victoria L. Sork, director of the UCLA Mildred E. Mathias Botanical Garden and distinguished professor of ecology and evolutionary biology, University of California, Los Angeles

Geerat J. Vermeij, distinguished professor of marine ecology and paleoecology, University of California, Davis

Ananda Goldrath, professor of molecular biology, University of California, San Diego

Stephen P. Hinshaw, professor of psychology, University of California, Berkeley, and professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences, and vice-chair for child and adolescent psychology, University of California, San Francisco

Judith Kroll, distinguished professor of language science, University of California, Irvine

Stefano DellaVigna, co-director of the Berkeley Initiative for Behavioral Economics and Finance, Daniel Koshland, Sr., distinguished professor of economics and professor of business administration, University of California, Berkeley

Robert Christopher Feenstra, director of the Center for International Data, C. Bryan Cameron Distinguished Chair in International Economics, University of California, Davis

Annette Vissing-Jrgensen, Arno A. Rayner Chair in Finance and Management and chair of the Finance Group at Berkeley Haas School of Business, University of California, Berkeley

Barbara Geddes, professor emeritus of political science, University of California, Los Angeles

Daniel N. Posner, James S. Coleman Professor of International Development in the Department of Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles

Kimberl W. Crenshaw, distinguished professor of law, Promise Institute Chair in Human Rights, UCLA School of Law

Barbara Rogoff, distinguished professor of psychology, University of California, Santa Cruz

Angela Y. Davis, distinguished professor emeritus, University of California, Santa Cruz

R. Jay Wallace, Judy Chandler Webb Distinguished Chair for Innovative Teaching and Research and professor of philosophy, University of California, Berkeley

Kelly Lytle Hernndez, director of the Ralph J. Bunche Center for African American Studies, Thomas E. Lifka Endowed Chair in History and professor of history, African American studies, and urban planning, University of California, Los Angeles

Andrs Resndez, professor of history, University of California, Davis

Terence O. Blanchard, Kenny Burrell Chair in Jazz Studies, University of California, Los Angeles

Elisabeth Le Guin, professor of musicology, University of California, Los Angeles

Rucker C. Johnson, Chancellors Professor of Public Policy in the Goldman School of Public Policy, University of California, Berkeley

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National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences elect 36 new UC members - University of California