AI-aided Geometric Design of Anti-infection Catheters

Understand

Bacteria can swim upstream due to hydrodynamic interactions with the fluid flow in a narrow tube, and pose a clinical threat of urinary tract infection to patients implanted with catheters.

• Coatings and structured surfaces have been proposed as a way to suppress bacterial contamination in catheters.
• However, there is no surface structuring or coating approach to date that thoroughly addresses the contamination problem.
• Here, based on the physical mechanism of upstream swimming, we propose a novel geometric design, optimized by an AI model predicting in-flow bacterial dynamics.