Treatment of Chronic Wound Biofilms

Chronic wounds cause significant morbidity and cost our healthcare system millions of dollars each year.Their healing is slowed by biofilms, communities of bacteria surrounded by a protective layer that stops the immune system and antibiotics from getting close enough to kill them. The investigators will develop a new strategy to destroy biofilms using a protein made from bacteria that live on our skin.The Staphylococcus epidermidis Esp protein will be used to destroy Staphylococcus aureus biofilms, the most common bacterium in chronic wounds. The investigators hypothesize that the use of the Esp protein will breakdown S. aureus biofilms, decrease bacterial colonization of chronic wounds and improve healing times.