Using Antimicrobial Peptides to Design Surfaces that Kill Bacteria

Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are utilized by many organisms as a natural barrier against bacterial and fungal infection. Among higher organisms antimicrobial peptides are secreted constitutively by epithelial cells leading to the belief that synthetic surfaces can be functionalized by antimicrobial peptides. We conjugated antimicrobial peptides to lipid tails, and deposited the modified peptides onto the sides of a test tube via vesicle fusion. We so far have found that by UV detection the AMP functionalized test tubes show measurable destabilization of bacterial cell membranes, a precursor to cell death.