Currently, 5 million people die each year to antibiotic resistance bacteria and the number is rising. To treat infections, health professionals continually modified current antibiotics instead of synthesizing new ones, leaving us defenseless against bacteria that evolve to resist these antibiotics. Fully engineered nanoparticles are a promising alternative due to bacterias inability to form resistance, but it has not been known how to use them in real world applications.

To address this, University of Michigan researchers across multiple disciplines - mechanical engineering, chemical engineering and Emergency medicine - formed together in 2018 to develop a unique approach, develop nanoparticles that can be synthesized to combat infections. They are using machine learning and AI to predict how a specific nanoparticle can interact with certain bacteria, helping to pave the way to create on demand antibiotics.

This research is conducted by:

Angela Violi, Arthur F Thurnau Professor
Professor of Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Macromolecular Science and Engineering, Applied Physics, and Biophysics
https://sites.google.com/umich.edu/violilab/

J. Scott VanEpps
Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine, Biomedical Engineering, and Macromolecular Sciences and Engineering
https://www.vanepps-lab-um.com/

Nicholas A. Kotov
Irving Langmuir Distinguished University Professor of Chemical Sciences and Engineering
Joseph B and Florence V Cejka Professor of Engineering
Professor of Chemical Engineering, Biomedical Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Macromolecular Science and Engineering
https://kotov.engin.umich.edu/

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