Sharklet- A Critical Technology in a Pandemic
The Society For Biomaterials hosted a webinar on Wednesday, June 17, 2020. Anthony Brennan discussed Sharklet: A Critical Technology in a pandemic. The pandemic that has literally stopped the world in its tracks pushes everyone to seek new strategies to attenuate the spread of the disease. The SARS-CoV-2 virus is known to exist for extended periods of time on surfaces that are another vector for its transmission to hosts. Sharklet is a bio-inspired microtopography that has been demonstrated effective at inhibiting the attachment, growth, migration, and transference from surfaces. The Sharklet design was inspired by investigations of marine biofouling of ships that led to the evaluation of the structure of sharkskin as a surface that remained free of biofouling in the harshest environments. The roughness of the sharkskin denticles, tooth-like structures, was integrated into an empirical model for anti-wetting behavior. These models led to the evaluation of numerous organisms from the marine environment and the human being. This presentation will take a historical tour of the development process, the biological data, and the current state of the art in terms of medical devices and surface protection during this pandemic and beyond. The evaluation of performance is difficult for this technology that is non-toxic and non-releasing. Newly developed test methodologies will also be described to reveal new approaches.
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This webinar is sponsored/hosted by the BioInterfaces SIG.