Nanotechnology for Biofilm Prevention, Treatment and Diagnosis

Dear Colleagues,

Microbial biofilm formation constitutes the main reason for biomaterial associated infections around catheters, orthopaedic, trauma, dental implants, and many other biomedical devices, and complicates and impairs the healing of chronic wounds, such as in diabetic foot ulcers and non-healing skin wounds. The biofilm matrix acts as a protective barrier and prevents nutrients from penetrating into the deeper layers of a biofilm causing low susceptibility of organisms to antimicrobials and the host immune system. Main strategies to fight biofilms are either based on preventing biofilm formation, on penetration and the killing of bacteria or fungi in biofilms or finally biofilm debridement. Many of these strategies may involve nanotechnology, e.g., nano patterned surface coatings, release of antimicrobial nanoparticles, graphene-based nanomaterials, responsive nanocomposite coatings, and drug delivery from nanoparticles. The treatment and prevention of biofilms are extremely complex and have sparked a great deal of interest. Biofilm diagnosis, detection and staging, particularly in clinical settings, however, are still far from mature and may benefit from nanotechnology as well, such as in smart dressing designs and tracer development. This Special Issue of Nanomaterials (Current Impact Factor: 3.504, JCR category rank: 71/285 (Q1) in ‘Materials Science, Multidisciplinary’; 39/92 (Q2) in ‘Nanoscience & Nanotechnology’), “Nanotechnology for Biofilm Prevention, Treatment and Diagnosis”, aims at collecting a compilation of articles that strongly demonstrate the continuous efforts in developing advanced and safe nanomaterial-based technologies to diagnose and fight microbial biofilms.

Dr. Jelmer Sjollema
Guest Editor

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