# Slippery Nanoemulsion-Infused Polymer Coatings that Prevent Bacterial Fouling and Block Bacterial Virulence

> **NIH NIH R21** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2024 · $181,055

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY: This R21 project will develop new classes of synthetic liquid-infused surfaces and
coatings that prevent bacterial fouling and attenuate bacterial virulence in clinical and healthcare settings.
These objectives will be accomplished by the pursuit of two focused and integrated Aims: (1) to explore new
designs of slippery nanoemulsion-infused porous surfaces (SNIPS) and characterize the impacts of infused
nanoemulsions on antifouling behavior, including the ability to prevent fouling by bacterial pathogens, and (2)
to design SNIPS that can host and release active agents and characterize the ability of drug-eluting SNIPS to
enhance prevention of surface biofouling and attenuate bacterial load and virulence.
 Contamination and fouling of surfaces by bacteria pose persistent and costly threats in many industrial,
commercial, and clinical healthcare settings. These problems are urgent, and the potential societal and
economic impacts of strategies to prevent bacterial fouling and virulence are nearly impossible to overstate.
Many strategies have been used to design materials that resist bacterial fouling, but all of them ultimately fail
when deployed in real-world scenarios. Fundamentally new approaches to the design of antifouling or `anti-
virulence' surfaces that move beyond conventional design strategies are desperately needed and would have
substantial impacts on human health.
 One promising approach to prevent bacterial fouling on surfaces is to exploit the properties of `slippery'
liquid-infused porous surfaces. These so-called `SLIPS' have enormous potential in healthcare settings, but are
generally passive materials—they can strongly repel bacteria with which they come into contact, but can do
little to attenuate the virulent behaviors of organisms in surrounding environments or reduce microbial load.
This proposal seeks to advance innovative designs of `drug-eluting' SLIPS that can address this challenge and,
thereby, enhance inherent anti-biofouling properties by eluting antimicrobial and anti-virulence agents.
 The proposed work is based on two broad propositions: (i) that infusion of water-in-oil nanoemulsions,
rather than conventional hydrophobic oils, into porous polymer coatings can be used to design `slippery'
antifouling materials (`SNIPS') that can host and release bioactive agents, and (ii) that SNIPS containing potent
antibiotics and novel anti-virulence agents can reduce bacterial loads and alter bacterial behaviors in ways that
enhance inherent anti-biofouling behaviors and expand the practical utility of liquid-infused materials. Our
innovative and cross-disciplinary research plan seeks to explore these new ideas and test hypotheses that will
create a foundation for the development of new synthetic polymer coatings that can prevent bacterial fouling in
practical settings. The scope of the proposed studies embodies novel questions and associated levels of risk
that are appropriate for an R21-level study and unites...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10816576
- **Project number:** 5R21EB033622-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** DAVID M LYNN
- **Activity code:** R21 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $181,055
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2023-04-01 → 2026-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10816576

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10816576, Slippery Nanoemulsion-Infused Polymer Coatings that Prevent Bacterial Fouling and Block Bacterial Virulence (5R21EB033622-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10816576. Licensed CC0.

---

*[NIH grants dataset](/datasets/nih-grants) · CC0 1.0*