The Environmental Healthcare Unit provides a Consultancy Service for companies who wish to undertake research involving new antimicrobial products, novel antimicrobial therapies and new hospital cleaning chemistries.
Our Consultancy Service has dealt with a wide range of projects in collaboration with both small and large multinational companies.
We offer a range of testing services using up-to-date microbiological methods and the latest techniques in specialised microscopy.
- Bacterial culture of a wide range of hazard group 2 organisms to suit our clients’ needs
- Expertise with Epi-fluorescence and Episcopic Differential Interference Contrast (EDIC) Microscopy allows us to image bacteria using DNA stains, and also to image bacteria in-situ on non-transparent surfaces such as metal and plastic
- We can carry out disinfection assays to assess the antimicrobial capabilities of our clients disinfectant / antimicrobial surfaces with a wide range of HG2 organisms
- Many people are creating antimicrobial products containing copper, and we can assess the effectiveness of these in our labs
- Biofilm assays allow us to determine the growth of bacteria on your surface or product over time
- Tests for viable but non-culturable (VBNC) bacteria that will not grow in culture:
- Cell elongation (by creating an environment with low levels of stress, live cells replicate but do not separate, allowing them to be quantified
- Live/dead staining (determining the viability of bacteria by means of membrane permeable and non-permeable DNA stains)
- Respiration tests using CTC (use of a fluorescent metabolite turns respiring cells fluorescent, allowing them to be quantified)
- Water filtration and culture /microscopy
- Molecular techniques allow us to detect the presence of a strain of bacteria by their DNA:
- PNA FISH (Fluorescence In-Situ Hybridisation) allow us to visually detect individual bacteria species from the rest of the microbial community
- Real time PCR can detect the presence of low levels of bacterial species in environmental samples
- Viral culture and disinfection assays (murine norovirus, Influenza virus)
- Fungal disinfection assays using Aspergillus brasiliensis (formerly A. niger) and other fungi
For more information please contact us.