Visiting Scientist for a 9-month period at the Center for Biofilm Engineering, Bozeman, Montana, USA

At the Center for Biofilm Engineering, Dr. Iolanda Francolini worked on a project regrading the development of polymer systems for drug controlled release to prevent medical device-related infections. Particularly, a novel drug delivery polymer matrix consisting of a poly 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (pHEMA) hydrogel coated with ordered methylene chains forming an ultrasound-responsive coating was developed. This system was able to retain the loaded drug ciprofloxacin inside the polymer in the absence of ultrasound but showed a significant drug release when low intensity ultrasound was applied. The activity of the developed system to control infectious biofilms was assessed by monitoring the accumulation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms grown on hydrogels with or without ciprofloxacin and with or without exposure to ultrasound (43 kHz ultrasonic bath for 20 min daily) in an in vitro flow-cell study. The results obtained in this research period were object of two publications on peer-reviewed journals.