Bringing light to pathogens: light-driven strategies for disinfection of pathogens

Speaker: Nidia Maldonado Carmona, University of Florence, Italy

The emergence of antimicrobial resistance has prompt ed the search for new strategies, aiming to find more efficient ways to kill microbial pathogens. In this sense, Photodynamic Antimicrobial ChemoTherapy (PACT) uses a combination of light, oxygen and a photosensitizer molecule to produce lethal reactive oxygen species, which have demonstrated to be highly effective against microorganisms and even against multiresistant microorganisms. During this talk, I will   address the different challenges that surround the field, ranging from an efficient delivery of photosensitizers using natural biopolymers, while also addressing the delivery of light into a clinical scenario model, addressing the difficulties of biological experiments with two-variables to juggle with, technical challenges that hinder the application of this technique into the clinic.