Momentum - The Magazine for Virginia Tech Mechanical Engineering Vol. 3 No. 3 Fall 2018 | Page 19

"It's pretty difficult to put
life into mathematical
equations"
Bahareh Behkam
that showed the greatest promise.
“It is pretty difficult to put life into a math-
ematical equation,” Behkam admits. “There
are so many variables as to what type of
organisms there are, what the surface might
be like, a host of biological and environmental
factors. Our team approached this challenging
problem from a thermodynamic view. Instead
of trying to predict how many organisms
would stay on a surface, we looked at how
much energy change it takes for an organism
to stay on a surface. The larger the required
energy change, the less desirable a surface is
for an organism. The less desirable a surface,
the fewer organisms that will attach. That was
the approach we took.”
optimally reduce microbial attachment,” Beh-
kam said. “We applied the model to different
medical catheters made from different primary
device materials such as polyurethane, latex,
and silicon and we were able to show that
irrespective of the material, the model is valid
and shows us the texture to reduce microbial
adhesion, and optimize the device for surface
functionality.”
Equipped with the validated model and
unique surface texturizing technologies,
Behkam is now turning toward determining
the long-term function of these engineered
surfaces. Because the process of adding tex-
tures to a device is scalable, cost-effective, and
can take place at the end of manufacturing,
Behkam said she believes the process can be
After creating the mathematical model and
incorporated for a minimal cost per unit,
running computer simulations, the team chose
and she has spoken with medical device
the most likely candidates from the computer
manufacturers who have expressed interest
model. Using Nain’s patented STEP technol-
in the concept. To translate the technology
ogy, they created nanofiber coated surfaces of
and the predictive model, the engineers have
precise diameter and spacing and placed them
paired up with a team of urologists to mitigate
in a bioreactor to assess microbial adhesion to
biofilm formation on implantable urological
these engineered surfaces.
devices.
“The live tests validated our model for the
predictive design of surface patterns that
MOMENTUM
FALL 2018
PAGE 19