Prosthetic Joint Infection Diagnosis
Biofilm formation
Bacteria can attach to surfaces, such as those of prosthetic joints, on which they form biofilms. These biofilms are communities of bacterial cells embedded in an extracellular polymeric matrix. In biofilms, bacteria are relatively protected from the immune system and from many antibiotics. The immune system, activated by biofilms, may damage surrounding tissues.
The Infectious Diseases Laboratory at Mayo Clinic is developing a suite of methods to detect bacteria in biofilms and apply them to diagnosing prosthetic joint and other biofilm-mediated infections. These methods are used to determine whether prosthetic joint infections, sometimes unrecognized by current methods, are being missed in clinical practice.
Researchers in the laboratory are developing new advanced diagnostic assays. This includes multi-omic analyses, which is the combination of metagenomics, transcriptomics and proteomic analyses.