As a first year PhD student, my research journey has only just begun. I’m based in the Department of Infection, Immunity & Cardiovascular Disease (IICD) and my focus is corneal infections.
The cornea is the transparent lens that covers the surface of our eyes and it plays an essential role in eyesight. Therefore if bacteria infect the cornea, the results can be devastating and corneal infections are still a major cause of blindness worldwide. This type of infection is a particular problem in developing countries.
One of the major issues with treating corneal infections is that bacteria attach to the cornea as ‘biofilms’. A biofilm is a complex community of bacteria, held together in a sticky extracellular matrix. Bacteria within biofilms have different characteristics to free-living bacteria and one of these characteristics is an increased resistance to antibiotics. This makes it difficult to treat corneal infections and new antimicrobials are desperately required.
With this in mind, I am trying to develop an in vitro model of the infected cornea that can be used for drug testing. If successful, my PhD journey could end with the identification of new antimicrobials that are able to beat the biofilms and help to prevent corneal blindness.
The cornea is the transparent lens that covers the surface of our eyes and it plays an essential role in eyesight. Therefore if bacteria infect the cornea, the results can be devastating and corneal infections are still a major cause of blindness worldwide. This type of infection is a particular problem in developing countries.
One of the major issues with treating corneal infections is that bacteria attach to the cornea as ‘biofilms’. A biofilm is a complex community of bacteria, held together in a sticky extracellular matrix. Bacteria within biofilms have different characteristics to free-living bacteria and one of these characteristics is an increased resistance to antibiotics. This makes it difficult to treat corneal infections and new antimicrobials are desperately required.
With this in mind, I am trying to develop an in vitro model of the infected cornea that can be used for drug testing. If successful, my PhD journey could end with the identification of new antimicrobials that are able to beat the biofilms and help to prevent corneal blindness.
An S. aureus biofilm:
These images were produced by my supervisor, Dr Rahaf Issa, using A Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The first image shows a biofilm early in its development and the second image shows a mature biofilm.
These images were produced by my supervisor, Dr Rahaf Issa, using A Scanning Electron Microscope (SEM). The first image shows a biofilm early in its development and the second image shows a mature biofilm.
