Madeline Berrow

Contact

• workRoom D35 Boots Science Building (BSB)
  University Park
  Nottingham
  NG7 2RD
  UK
• Madeline.Berrow@nottingham.ac.uk

Research Summary

Analysing chlorhexidine penetration through skin to optimise delivery to infected tissues.

Supervisors: Felicity de Cogan (https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pharmacy/people/felicity.decogan), David Scurr (https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/pharmacy/people/david.scurr).

My research explores the skin permeation of chlorhexidine, a common additive of surgical hand washes, surgical site and instrument sanitisers and for skin antisepsis pre-catheter implementation, to underpin its potential as a topical antiseptic for treating skin infections, including deep tissue infections. Optimising tissue permeation of chlorhexidine could offer an alternative therapy to treat 'difficult-to-treat' infections that would normally involve administration of strong antibiotics or antifungals, or in some cases, surgical removal of infected tissue.

My research involves test stripping native and chlorhexidine-treated human skin to:

1. examine efficacy of the topical antiseptic by culturing remaining bacteria from skin samples
2. characterise skin sections using ToF-SIMS allowing quantification of chlorhexidine permeation depth