(569g) Microbe-Responsive and Microbe-Targeted Biomaterials for Drug Delivery (Invited Speaker)

Microbial infections are a leading cause of death worldwide. Infections caused by bacteria and fungi are becoming increasingly difficult to treat, due to rising antimicrobial resistance and lack of new antimicrobial therapeutics. Smart drug delivery approaches (i.e., responsive and targeted delivery systems) have the potential to effectively treat and prevent infections, while limiting toxicity, susceptibility for resistance development, and prolonging the lifetime of existing therapeutics. In this presentation, I will describe our recent work in this area involving the development of bacteria and fungi-responsive and targeted biomaterials. We have developed responsive hydrogel drug delivery platforms that selectively degrade and release encapsulated therapeutic cargo in the presence of bacterial beta-lactamase enzymes and fungal secreted aspartic proteases. We have also developed a range of surface coatings and nanoparticles that exhibit bacteria-responsive and/or targeted antibacterial, antifungal, and antibiofilm behavior. Our recent results with these drug delivery systems will be presented.