Martha Grady
University of Kentucky, KY·Biomedical Engineering·Early-career
Hundreds of thousands of Americans develop medical device infections each year. Many of these infections come from biofilms, communities of bacteria that stick to surfaces and protect themselves in a slimy matrix.
- Fields
Biomedical Engineering
Engineering
Materials Science
- Topics
biofilm
medical device infections
implant infection
- Grants
- 2 known grants, through Jul 2030
What they work on
- Identify the dominant parameters that promote strong biofilm adhesion using laser spallation, and establish an Adhesion Index comparing mammalian cell adhesion to biofilm adhesion on implant surfaces.
- Measure biofilm deformability and mesh size using combined confocal laser scanning and atomic force microscopy plus particle mobility assays, to inform diffusion models for drug delivery through biofilms.
- Measure the structural, deformation, and diffusive properties of single- and multispecies oral biofilms on 3D-printed titanium implant surfaces to identify adverse biofilms that are hard to remove or kill.
- Determine the Adhesion Index of additively manufactured titanium using laser-induced spallation to support screening of patient-specific dental implant designs.
More about the research
This research treats biofilms as a mechanics problem. It asks how strongly they stick, how they deform, and how tightly woven they are, because these properties determine how hard biofilms are to remove or kill. The two projects share a set of measurement tools. One builds a general understanding of biofilm mechanics on implant surfaces. The other applies these tools to 3D-printed titanium dental implants.
Why it matters
Medical device infections affect about a quarter million Americans each year. Clear measures of how hard biofilms are to remove or kill could give engineers target values for designing safer implant surfaces. In particular, the work could help produce 3D-printed, patient-specific dental implants that are less prone to infection. Data on biofilm mesh size could also guide drug-delivery carriers designed to penetrate biofilms. Biofilm control knowledge may also matter for maritime, food, water, and aerospace industries.
Known grants
From NIH and NSF research grants. Labs often have other funding we can't see.
Closest labs
Yiliang Liao
Iowa State University, IA·Engineering
Determine how the evolving, uneven thermal environment of a hot liquid support bath controls polymer diffusion and interlayer fusion in embedded printing, using deep-neural-network molecular dynamics, phase-field modeling, and experiments.
Amit Bandyopadhyay
Washington State University, WA·Biomedical Engineering
Determine how calcium phosphate–reinforced titanium alloy composites form a protective tribofilm that resists combined wear and corrosion, and measure how cells respond to these materials in vitro.
Edward Steager
University of Pennsylvania, PA·Biomedical Engineering
Optimize magnetic control, bacteria-killing activity and tracking of CAR1s, aggregated iron oxide nanoparticle robots, for treating and retrieving root-canal biofilm, testing them in 3D-printed teeth, extracted teeth and pig jaws.
The school
University of Kentucky: 34 labs on PI Pages, $528M a year on research, 319 research doctorates a year.
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