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Image of Chien-Yi Chang
Research Fellow, Faculty of Medicine & Health Sciences
Funded by Wellcome Trust UK, I am working in the project titled "High throughput micro-arrays for discovery of polymers resistant to bacterial colonization." Bacteria, at some point in their life… read more
Funded by Wellcome Trust UK, I am working in the project titled "High throughput micro-arrays for discovery of polymers resistant to bacterial colonization." Bacteria, at some point in their life cycle attach to surfaces, aggregate, grow and then form organised and sometimes multi-species communities known as biofilms. When compared to their free-living counterparts (normally referred to as planktonic) bacteria which embed within a biofilm display different physiological characteristics such as high resistance to environmental challenge in the form of UV, dehydration and pH and high tolerance to antibiotics and the host immune system. Bacterial biofilm colonization on the surface of implanted medical devices increases the hospital-acquired infections and enhances the risk of lethal sepsis. There is clearly a need for in-dwelling medical devices to be resistant to bacterial colonisation and a key strategy for reducing biofilm associated infections on these abiotic surfaces is to prevent the attachment of bacteria using anti-bacterial materials. Working with Prof Paul Williams, Prof Martyn Davies and Prof Morgan Alexander at the University of Nottingham, in collaboration with Prof Robert Langer and Prof Daniel Anderson at Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a high-throughput low cost screening method using microarray techniques is developing for rapidly analyzing the anti-bacterial efficacy of a large number of compounds in combination against bacterial pathogens which form biofilms on materials used in the manufacture of in-dwelling medical devices.
I worked as a Postdoctoral Research Associate funded by Human Frontier Science Program in the laboratory of Prof. Elizabeth Sockett in collaboration with Dr Janine Maddock (University of Michigan, USA) and Prof. Shin-Ichi Aizawa (Prefectural University of Hiroshima, Japan). My research is to characterise the functions of membrane proteins, the mechanisms of protein secretion systems and the roles of surface proteins in the life cycle of the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus which preys upon other Gram-negative bacteria including several human pathogens.
University of Nottingham University Park Nottingham, NG7 2RD
telephone: +44 (0)115 9513300 (Undergraduate Enquiries) +44 (0)115 8230311 (Postgraduate Enquiries) fax: +44 (0)115 8230338 email: biology@nottingham.ac.uk
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