3rd Joint Call: NAPARBA

Background

Resistance to antibiotics is considered to be one of the major health problems worldwide. Unfortunately, the rate of development of new drugs is too slow to address the need that is apparent by alarming reports on multiply resistant bacteria against which no antibiotics work. Among the pathogenic bacteria Staphylococcus aureus (SA) is one of the most common human pathogens that can be either hospital acquired or community associated. SA is particularly prone to acquire resistances to most antibiotics. Although infection rates differ considerably among various countries, MRSA (Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus) is a worldwide concern in health care facilities, i.e. also in Asia, and represents a severe infection disease burden, in particular in the ageing population. The necessary screening methods are typically expensive and require laboratory facilities. To be able to screen patients in hospital admission, to administer antibiotics in a targeted fashion (i.e. to match the drug to the bacterium) and to analyze pathways of resistance spread, reliable on-site tests are absolutely necessary. These should be rapid, ultrasensitive, selective and accurate, yet also economic and sustainable.

The project

NAPARBA aims at the development of a reliable and sustainable nanotechnology-enabled approach to ultrasensitively detect and differentiate antibiotic-resistant bacteria in a point of care diagnostic setting. The project addresses the core challenge to detect bacteria and in particular to differentiate resistant from non-resistant strains at low concentrations of potential biomarkers. The approach developed in NAPARBA to separate, up-concentrate and analyze small amounts of DNA will tested for applicability in a prototypical demonstrator to ensure applicability in a working environment.

The science

NAPARBA builds on a versatile and ultrasensitive detection approach, enhances the functionality and performance of the individual components and also utilizes nanoparticles of local natural resources. These are complemented by to be improved high performance non-toxic luminescent quantum dots for signaling, magnetic nanoparticles for separation and nanocoatings of advanced polymers to suppress particle aggregation and to afford functionality. The nanotechnology elements are combined in a point of care (POC) compatible workflow employing low cost materials and are tailored towards prototypic application.

The team

The NAPARBA partners are:

Prof. Dr. Holger Schönherr, Physical Chemistry I and Research Center of Micro and Nanochemistry and Engineering (Cμ), University of Siegen, Germany (Project coordinator)

S. N. Aisyiyah Jenie, Ph.D, Research Center for Chemistry, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Indonesia

Associate Prof. Dr. Sedat Nizamoğlu, Koç University, Turkey

Contact:

Prof. Dr. Holger Schönherr           E-Mail: schoenherr@chemie.uni-siegen.de