What happens when antibiotics no longer become a viable method to treat infections? And what do we do when wound dressings like bandages become infected themselves? Amber Doiron, assistant professor in the College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences' Department of Electric and Biomedical Engineering, and a recent recipient of a prestigious National Science Foundation CAREER Award, is researching innovative methods and materials to combat these problems. Infections of the dermis, the inner layer of the skin can come from burns, surgical incisions, or chronic wounds.

"Our main goal is to invent new materials to act as wound dressings in order to prevent or treat a particularly nasty kind of bacterial infection called a biofilm," Doiron explains. Doiron and her collaborators are creating innovative wound dressings- bandages that make it difficult for infections to turn into biofilms.

Read more about Amber Doiron's research.

Research of this type has contributed to the University of Vermont's designation by the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education as an R1 institution, placing it in the top tier of research universities in the U.S.