NanoHeal: Bridging Bench to Bedside for Advanced Nanomaterials in Wound Care and Infection

Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) poses a severe threat to patients where tissue is exposed to the environment (e.g. surgical/traumatic wounds, burns, diabetic/pressure ulcers, or chronic wounds). Fungi, in particular, are a serious, and increasing, cause of chronic, non-healing wounds that are difficult to treat. Systemic antimicrobials and local wound care offer limited benefits and there is a distinct lack of new wound care solutions to combat AMR and an alarming lack of progress on development of new antifungal treatments. To this end, it is clear that new technologies are needed to combat AMR. A bench to bedside pipeline, strategically targeting multimodal, non-drug-based treatment, is needed to bring new solutions to eradicating fungal infections. Our aim is to develop and validate safe, effective, and targeted antimicrobial nanomaterials, which can be delivered to the site of wounds and will promote healing as well as ensure ‘on-demand’ wound sterilisation. The technologies will be incorporated into gel-based dressings, which can kill and repel microbes during healing. Our multidisciplinary consortium will engineer targeted, on-demand antifungal therapeutics utilizing nanomaterial platforms to optimize wound infection prevention, treatment, and management. We will establish a robust developmental pipeline to address the pressing challenges of antifungal resistance, preventing infection, and enhancing wound care efficacy and patient welfare if infection arises.