Ebba Biotech welcomes you to tune in to our webinar featuring Dr. Ramon Maset from University College London. During his talk, Dr. Maset will present his research about the role of biofilms in urinary tract infections and highlight how the use of advanced tools like EbbaBiolight can help deepen our understanding of these infections.

Dr. Maset graduated in Biochemistry and Biomedical Science (University of Valencia, Spain), followed by a research internship at the University of East Anglia (UK). He completed an MSc in the Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Programme (IBRP) at the University of Warwick (UK), which was funded by the Medical Council Research (MRC). His PhD project was performed under the supervision of Professor Sebastien Perrier and Dr Freya Harrison on antimicrobial polymers against biofilms. The project aimed to tackle the antimicrobial resistance (AMR) crisis through an interdisciplinary approach. After his PhD, Dr. Maset was awarded a UK Medical Research Council (MRC) Early Career Fellowship to gain experience in research in the private sector. His project at 5D Health Protection Group (Liverpool, UK) aimed to discover the synergistic activity of metal ions with antibiotics in wound dressing to treat biofilms in chronic wound infections. His postdoctoral research in Prof. Rohn’s group is performed under the Beyond Antibiotics Programme Grant from the UK Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council at University College London (UCL). The project focuses on the host-pathogen interaction, biofilm formation, and antimicrobial response of urinary tract infections (UTIs) using a 3D human bladder organoid model. The project involves an interdisciplinary approach combining advanced 3D tissue culture, microfluidics engineering, and state-of-the-art imaging techniques including confocal microscopy to better understand the host-pathogen interactions in the context of UTIs.

Ebba Biotech welcomes you to listen to our resident expert from the Center for the Advancement of the Integrated Medical and Engineering Sciences (AIMES) at Karolinska Institutet, Sweden - Dr. Susanne Löffler.

During this talk titled "Opto-electronically active Materials for Infection Detection and Control", Dr. Löffler will be presenting AIMES research about using optotracers for infection detection and control.

Read more about Dr. Löffler's work at AIMES here: https://aimes.se/

As a Group Leader at the Center for the Advancement of Integrated Medical and Engineering Sciences (AIMES) based in Stockholm, Sweden, Dr. Löffler specialises in Organic Bioelectronics for Bacterial Infection. Her background in biomedical sciences and signal processing make her uniquely suited to develop novel and specialised tools for data management, visualisation and analysis for bacterial detection technologies.

With an academic career starting at the University of Lübeck with both an MSc in Molecular Life Sciences and a PhD covering the specialisation in neural recordings and microstimulation, Dr. Löffler now spends her time bringing new exciting scientific applications to the commercial and entrepreneurial space. This being done through her work consulting life science start ups whilst still maintaining her position at AIMES.

DISCLAIMER
Dr. Löffler describes research using optotracers. The optotracers described during the webinar are commercially available under the product family name EbbaBiolight, which are marketed and sold by Ebba Biotech.

The Research Square video provides a summary of a publication by Choong et al. about a new semi-high throughput metod to monitor biofilm formation in Salmonella using EbbaBiolight. Please have a look on our summary article for more information.

Ebba Biotech welcomes you to listen to Dr. Ashraf Zarkan from University of Cambridge presenting his work on antibiofilm therapies for urinary tract infections using EbbaBiolight.

About the speaker: Ashraf Zarkan is a microbiologist with a pharmaceutical background, holding a PhD in Biochemistry from the University of Cambridge. He did his bachelor’s degree in Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Chemistry followed by an MSc in Microbiology. He has a broad repertoire of training skills that range from experimental research to computational approaches to data analysis. Ash is passionate about tackling the increasing problem with antibiotic resistance, and his research has been focused on developing antibiotic adjuvants. He has a solid experience in bacterial signalling and antibiotic action, side effects, and combinations with adjuvants.

Abstract: Serious bacterial infections represent an unprecedented worldwide threat, due mainly to the emergence of antibiotic-resistant bacteria for which we have limited therapies. Antibiotic resistance is on the rise and has recently been identified as one of the World Health Organization’s global health challenges in the next decade. A key aspect of the antibiotic resistance problem is the ability of bacteria to form biofilms, which provide protection from both antibiotics and the host immune system. Biofilms are implicated in chronic infections such as urinary tract infections (UTIs). UTIs are among the most prevalent bacterial infections, affecting 150 million people per year worldwide, with 75% of infections occurring due to uropathogenic E. coli. Research by Dr Zarkan and his colleagues from the University of Cambridge highlighted the inhibition of an E. coli enzyme as a plausible route to inhibit biofilm formation, thereby reduce pathogenicity and increase antibiotic effectiveness in UTIs. In this webinar, you will learn how a collaboration between the University of Cambridge and Ebba Biotech AB successfully confirmed the antibiofilm properties of a set of novel inhibitors in clinical strains of uropathogenic E. coli. The current focus is in optimising these hits and completing pre-clinical development to be able to move further into clinical trials.

On the first of June 2021, Ferdinand Choong, Ebba Biotech's co-founder, and Assistant Professor at Karolinska Institutet and AIMES (Center for the Advancement of Integrated Medical and Engineering), presented his research using Ebba Biotech's optotracers at the digital event Lab & Diagnostics of the Future 2021, held by Life Science Sweden.

At this event, Ferdinand spoke about Ebba Biotech's optotracers multifunctional tracer for disease research and diagnostics. He explains the technical concept in large and Ebba Biotech's three product series,

Amytracker - used to detect amyloids and other protein aggregates,
Ebba Biolight - used to detect bacteria and biofilm,
Carbotrace - used for mapping composition of biobased material.

At AIMES, Ferdinand is applying optotracing to improve research and diagnostics of infection, where bacterial infection has a significant role, and biofilm might be the key reason why bacterial infection exists, which he describes in more detail.

There are a couple of common techniques today, such as Congo Red Assay which is used to analyze biofilms, but the issue with this technique and many others is that it needs a trained eye for valid analysis and correct conclusions being drawn. When using EbbaBiolight instead, a more distinct answer as to whether biofilm exists or not is given, which makes this technique easier to use and conclusions are more easily drawn from an experiment.

Ebba Biotech welcomes you to listen to Dr. Karen Butina present her research findings using EbbaBiolight-like molecules. This webinar will focus on the use of the Optotracer molecules and technology applied on Staphylococci bacteria. You can read more about Dr. Butina's work here. DISCLAIMER: Dr. Butina describes her work using HS-167 molecules. These are predecessor molecules to what is now commercialised under the product family name EbbaBiolight, which are marketed and sold by Ebba Biotech.

Originally from Slovenia, Dr. Butina received her Bachelor’s degree in Biotechnology in Ljubljana before pursuing her Masters and PhD at KI in Sweden. At KI she was part of the pioneering team (Prof. Richter Dahlfors Group) behind the Optotracer technology within microbiology. Her extensive background in interdisciplinary work has broadened her interests within the medical field and she continuously strives to find out how things work and develop applications to contribute to an equal society.

If you always wondered what Biofilms are and why its important to being able to see them, you can watch our founder and chairman Professor Agneta Richter-Dahlfors' descriptive interview about Biofilms on Swedish National TV program "Godmorgon Sverige".

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published a research paper (Antypas et al. (2019) npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, 4, 26) about the significance of a test for cellulose in urine indicating the presence of a biofilm related infection. Using EbbaBiolight-like Molecules, cellulose can be shown to be present in urine for the first time.

Scientists at Karolinska Institutet in Sweden published a research paper (Antypas et al. (2019) npj Biofilms and Microbiomes, 4, 26) about the significance of a test for cellulose in urine indicating the presence of a biofilm related infection. Using EbbaBiolight-like Molecules, cellulose can be shown to be present in urine for the first time.