Medical Design and Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech

Silver and electricity can kill bacteria: Here’s how

August 21, 2017 By Danielle Kirsh

plastic bacteria silver nanoparticles electricity Swedish Medical Nanoscience Center at Karolinska Institutet

Group members discussing experimental results in the Richter-Dahlfors lab. [Image from Laurent Mekul/Karolinska Institutet]

Swedish researchers have developed a way to use silver nanoparticles and electrical currents to prevent bacteria from growing on plastic surfaces – helping to prevent hospital infections in the process.

Large electric currents and high silver concentrations are known to kill bacteria but pose a risk to humans. Before the Swedish Medical Nanoscience Center at Karolinska Institutet’s development, both components were never used in hospitals. Led by professor Agneta Richter-Dahlfors in Karolinska’s department of neuroscience, researchers were able to prove that dangerous levels of silver and electricity don’t have to be used to be effective in killing bacteria.

“By targeting the bacteria on several fronts at the same time, the effect of different small attacks becomes larger than when each factor is acting on its own,” Richter-Dahlfors said in a press release.

The researchers tested their theory on the common hospital pathogen Staphylococcus aureus. When they applied tiny electrical current to conducting plastic surfaces, there was no effect on bacterial growth. On another plastic surface with a layer of silver nanoparticles, bacteria growth was reduced. When they combined the two processes, bacteria growth was completely destroyed.

“It’s a phenomenon known as the bioelectric effect, whereby electrical fields weaken bacterial cells against external attacks,” Salvador Gomez-Carretero, a PhD student in Karolinska Institutet’s department of neuroscience, said. “We use electrical signals to increase the antimicrobial activity of the silver nanoparticles. This reduces the amount of silver needed, which is beneficial for both the patient and the environment.”

The researchers hope that their discovery will help keep surfaces in hospitals free of the dangerous bacterias that cause infections.

“It has not yet been tested in the clinic, but we believe this technology could be a good approach to limiting the spread of infectious bacteria and the incidence of hospital-acquired infections,” Richter-Dahlfors said.

The research was funded by the Swedish Research Council, Vinnova, Carl Bennet AB and the Swedish Medical Nanoscience Center and was published in the Advanced Healthcare Materials journal.

(Learn from some of the medical device industry’s top executives and experts at DeviceTalks Boston on Oct. 2.)

Comments

  1. Chandan K Sen says

    August 22, 2017 at 11:08 pm

    I read your work with pleasure. You may find these relevant works from our group interesting. The electroceutical dressing is FDA cleared and currently in clinical use.

    http://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0119531

    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24595050

    Another paper currently in press of Annals of Surgery attached (private use).

    • Chris Newmarker says

      August 23, 2017 at 2:58 pm

      Thanks for sharing, Dr. Sen!

  2. Johann says

    May 9, 2018 at 2:31 pm

    I am a high school student and I am doing some research on this. Is there a way to contact these researchers? Also can you explain how running a current through silver nano particles can kill germs (go into detail)
    Help would be greatly appreciated thanks

    • Chris Newmarker says

      May 16, 2018 at 4:37 pm

      Thanks for reaching out, Johann. I think your best bet would be to do a Google search on the researchers, find out their email addresses at the Karolinska Institutet.

Related Articles Read More >

Blackrock's Utah array is a miniature array of electrodes for sensing brain signals
Blackrock Neurotech and Pitt work on first at-home BCI system for remote trials
Myoshirt creator Marie Georgarakis wearing her device, which has cufs on her arm supported by a cable connected to equipment on her shoulder.
Researchers develop wearable robotic exomuscle system
Clippard NIV Series media isolation valves
Clippard releases new series of isolation valves
A cylindrical-shaped medical device with a blue cap on one end and a brown cap on the other
How SeaStar’s device calms hyperinflammation — and could prevent lasting damage from COVID cytokine storms

DeviceTalks Weekly.

June 24, 2022
How innovative design, commercial strategy is building Cala Trio’s bioelectronic medicine market
See More >

MDO Digital Edition

Digital Edition

Subscribe to Medical Design & Outsourcing. Bookmark, share and interact with the leading medical design engineering magazine today.

MEDTECH 100 INDEX

Medtech 100 logo
Market Summary > Current Price
The MedTech 100 is a financial index calculated using the BIG100 companies covered in Medical Design and Outsourcing.
DeviceTalks

DeviceTalks is a conversation among medical technology leaders. It's events, podcasts, webinars and one-on-one exchanges of ideas & insights.

DeviceTalks

New MedTech Resource

Medical Tubing

Enewsletter Subscriptions

Enewsletter Subscriptions

MassDevice

Mass Device

The Medical Device Business Journal. MassDevice is the leading medical device news business journal telling the stories of the devices that save lives.

Visit Website
MDO ad
Medical Design and Outsourcing
  • MassDevice
  • DeviceTalks
  • MedTech 100 Index
  • Medical Tubing + Extrusion
  • Drug Delivery Business News
  • Drug Discovery & Development
  • Pharmaceutical Processing World
  • R&D World
  • About Us/Contact
  • Advertise With Us
  • Subscribe to Print Magazine
  • Subscribe to E-newsletter
  • Attend our Monthly Webinars
  • Listen to our Weekly Podcasts
  • Join our DeviceTalks Tuesdays Discussion

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media, LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media LLC. Site Map | Privacy Policy | RSS

Search Medical Design & Outsourcing

  • Home
  • Medical Device Business
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Financial
    • Regulatory
  • Applications
    • Cardiovascular
    • Devices
    • Imaging
    • Implantables
    • Medical Equipment
    • Orthopedic
    • Surgical
  • Technologies
    • Contract Manufacturing
    • Components
    • Electronics
    • Extrusions
    • Materials
    • Motion Control
    • Prototyping
    • Pumps
    • Tubing
  • Med Tech Resources
    • DeviceTalks Tuesdays
    • Digital Editions
    • eBooks
    • Manufacturer Search
    • Medical Device Handbook
    • MedTech 100 Index
    • Podcasts
    • Print Subscription
    • The Big 100
    • Webinars / Digital Events
    • Whitepapers
    • Video
  • 2022 Leadership in MedTech
    • 2022 Leadership Voting!
    • 2021 Winners
    • 2020 Winners
  • Women in Medtech