How sharks inspired a new generation of medical devices | Ethan Mann | TEDxMileHigh

In this fascinating talk, microbiologist Ethan Mann explains how sharks inspired a life-saving solution to antimicrobial resistance.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx

The US Navy has always had
this frustrating problem with their fleet.

It's something called "fouling."

Now, for all you non-seafaring folk,

fouling is when things like algae
and barnacles and other marine materials

get stuck to the sides
of ships and submarines.

Used to be able to prevent this fouling

by coating ships and submarines
with toxic agents, like heavy metals,

but these heavy metals

aren't as effective at keeping
ships clean as they used to be.

And we want clean ships

because fouling on these vessels

actually makes them
less efficient in the water

and can be easier for enemies to detect.

This is not good.

So several years ago,
the US Office of Naval Research

called on one of my colleagues,
engineer scientist Dr. Anthony Brennan,

to devise a solution to prevent fouling

without the use of these heavy metals.

See, Dr. Brennan was already investigating

how things like surface roughness

can prevent the attachment
of organisms like algae.

But Dr. Brennan was struggling.

All of the engineered surfaces
he came up with

algae eventually overcame.

And then Brennan found himself
at a conference in Hawaii, of all places,

and noticed something rather intriguing.

Take a look at these three animals:

a manatee, a whale and a shark.

What do you notice?

Well, right.

So the whale and the manatee are filthy,

but the shark is squeaky clean.

This is a property unique to all sharks.

The next time you watch Shark Week,

you'll notice each and every shark you see

is pristine.

(Laughter)

Why?

Brennan wanted to find out.

So with the help
of some brave graduate students,

they set out to find a shark.

(Laughter)

They found one in the shallow water

and carefully took a mold of its skin
using a dental impression material.

Don't worry.

The shark wasn't harmed in the process,
although I'm sure he didn't appreciate it.

(Laughter)

So the students took the mold back
to the lab and put it under a microscope,

and this is what it looks like.

The sharkskin is comprised
of little denticles,

and they overlap to create a diamond-shape
repeating pattern on the sharkskin.

Upon further investigation,

Brennan and his team noticed
that the texture on these denticles

is actually what's responsible
for keeping sharks clean.

I'm a microbiologist
and infectious disease expert,

and I find this fascinating.

I've spent my career
trying to keep surfaces clean,

especially the surfaces
of medical devices.

In hospitals this is a massive problem.

See, what happens is bacteria
who are really normally good

find themselves in places
they shouldn't be

as a result of some medical procedure.

Sometime during or after surgery,

bacteria latch onto the surface
of a medical device, stay there,

and cause a serious infection;

and this makes it impossible
for the body to heal.

Take a look at these surgical wires

used to close a patient's sternum
following open-heart surgery.

Notice the tiny clusters
of bacteria on the surface?

This patient didn't heal for months

until the wires were removed,
and replaced with clean ones.

You know, it used to be

we just used antibiotics
to treat these types of infections.

Antibiotics were an amazing drug,

for a while.

But eventually, bacteria were exposed
to antibiotics so frequently

they were forced to adapt.

And survival is
the key driver of evolution,

and that's what we're talking about here:

bacterial evolution.

Perhaps you've heard
about this in the news.

It's referred to
as "Antimicrobial Resistance."

The US Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention

call antimicrobial resistance

one of the greatest
public health challenges of our time.

Illnesses that were once easily treatable

are now untreatable.

In the US alone every year,

more than two million people will get
an antibiotic resistant infection,

and over 23,000 people will die
as a result of that infection.

The pharmaceutical industry

is rushing to develop
more and more and more antimicrobials,

desperately trying to outpace
antimicrobial resistance.

But bacteria and germs,

they evolve so much more quickly
than we could innovate ways to kill them.

It's clear the antimicrobial era
is coming to an end,

so we have to think about this
in a whole new way.

What if instead of trying to kill bacteria
after they cause infections,

we simply make it harder for bacteria

to stick to the surfaces
of medical devices in the first place?

In other words,

we prevent these infections
from occurring altogether.

That's what brings me back
to what we've learned from sharks.

It's the texture of sharkskin
that makes them resistant to fouling.

So what if we change
the texture of medical devices

to make them resistant to bacteria
causing so many problems?

Dr. Brennan knew he had
a major medical breakthrough on his hands.

He called up some trusted friends
right here in Denver Colorado,

and they started a company,
and they called it Sharklet Technologies.

In 2013, I joined the team,

and together we used engineered surfaces
mimicking the skin of sharks

to prevent bacteria
and other medical complications.

Our first commercial device
is a urological catheter,

which doctors began using
for patients just last year.

(Applause)

Take a look at these example images.

The surface on the left
is a smooth surface,

and the one on the right
is a sharkskin-like texture.

Notice how much bacteria's
on the smooth surface

compared to the sharkskin-like surface?

This is because the sharkskin-like texture

creates an inhospitable surface
for bacterial attachment and growth.

It works on sharks, and it works here too

because the texture takes advantage
of principles of surface energy.

Now, surface energy

is really a description
of a detailed property of a surface.

It can include things like
water interaction or material stiffness.

The roughened sharkskin-like texture

creates a surface
with greater surface energy.

You know, we interact
with surface energy changes all the time.

We often just don't notice it.

For example, we like when rain beads up
and runs off our car, right?

Well, this happens best
with a nice coat of wax.

Wax is a material with greater
surface energy characteristics.

Now, we can't coat medical devices in wax,

but we can change their surface texture.

And this approach works
on all types of medical devices,

from catheters to pacemakers,

and it's effective against all types
of bacteria and germs.

As it turns out,

we can actually do more
than just bacteria-proof medical devices.

We can prevent other medical complications

through understanding
the power of surface energy,

things like frequent clogging,

excessive blood clotting

or poor healing interactions.

The next generation
of medical device surfaces

inspired by the skin of sharks

will actually expand
how medical devices are made.

Really the core issue

is that we create all types
of sophisticated medical devices,

things to pump fluid into our blood,

keep our heart beating on pace,

or even stimulate brain activity.

But bad things happen

when these devices don't interact well
with our bodies' natural mechanisms.

We've actually discovered

that we can improve
how medical devices are tolerated

through subtly tuning
the surface energy characteristics,

like for example, we can prevent
a lot of the excessive clotting

that's occurring here
on the smooth surface,

compared to the sharkskin-like texture.

This means that we can actually
match the required surface energy

with the medical use

to prevent complications,

all with the power of sharks.

Ultimately, as we continue
to engineer smart surfaces,

we'll require fewer antimicrobials,

fewer chemicals
and fewer harsh additives,

and this will make
life-saving medical technology

safer for all of us to use.

This is innovation
in its purest form, to be sure.

But it's also a good reminder

of just how important it is
to observe the subtle cues

in the raw mystery of the world around us.

Thank you.

(Applause)