Mechanisms of Bio-interfacial Interactions Between Microbial Pathogens and Surfaces

Dear Colleagues.

It is our great pleasure to invite submissions to a Special Issue on mechanistic aspects of interactions between microbes and materials surfaces. Microbial pathogens cause devastating consequences to all life by causing disease. It is clear that the properties of solid surfaces and interfaces have a large effect on whether a pathogen attaches to abiotic, artificial materials or to biological interfaces such as cells or tissues. The importance of the interface is evident in the process of initial attachment, but there is increasing awareness of microbial surface sensing by pathogens, a process that drives cellular migration, change of shape, and activation of virulence traits. Thus, engineered biomaterials provide an opportunity to better understand microbial pathogenesis in response to designed biointerfaces, and to use this knowledge to develop novel antimicrobial materials and coatings and a novel means of deterring microbial attachment via diffusible drugs.

In this Special Issue we aim to include articles that provide new mechanistic insight into the interactions between pathogenic organisms and surfaces. We aim to include not only novel chemical and biological interfaces, but chiefly to advance our understanding of how and why they function as they do. For this, we choose to focus on chemical and biological factors, not on physical factors such as topography. Some example topics could include:

• Novel antimicrobial surfaces and coatings and their mechanisms of action
• An understanding of the function of antimicrobial coatings using surface analysis
• Assays for testing of antimicrobial surfaces and implications for understanding mechanisms
• New analytical techniques for understanding cell pathogenesis on surfaces such as live cell imaging and cell impedance spectroscopy
• Model materials for understanding microbial pathogenesis: such as biomimetic tissue models for understanding how microbes adhere, spread and invade tissues
• and other related topics with a clear link to mechanisms of interaction

We are open to articles exploring all microbial pathogenesis including prokaryotic and eukaryotic pathogens, and diseases with implications to human, animal, and plant biology.

It is our great pleasure to welcome contributions as new reviews or original research articles on this important topic. We encourage you to disseminate this announcement to any colleagues who may be interested.

Dr. Bryan Coad
Prof. Dr. Hans Griesser
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Materials is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• Antimicrobial surface
• Coating
• Antifungal
• Antibacterial
• Biofilm
• Surface analysis
• Medical implant
• Diagnostics
• Biomimetics
• Pathogenesis
• Bio-interfaces
• Disease prevention