Science@Huddersfield

Steve Bentley: Hi and welcome to episode 1 of Science at Huddersfield, the podcast that looks at the science behind the headlines. In future programmes we'll have highlights of our series of public lectures given by scientists here at the University of Huddersfield, but for today's programme I caught up with Dr Paul Humphreys. Paul is a microbiologist and he's been testing a new disinfectant called Clinell which could be used in the fight against diseases like MRSA and even bird flu.

Paul Humphreys: That's right, we've done a whole range of tests with the Clinell product, looking at its ability to kill microorganisms responsible for disease. So that's including things like listeria, campylobacter.

SB: Is it usual to do this kind of testing after it's already on the market?

PH: The testing we're doing is as potential customers are asking questions of the product the people who make it, who we've been working quite closely with, are coming to us to give specific tests. Before the product went to market, Huddersfield did a whole range of standard European tests to show that the product was effective against a whole range of bacteria.

SB: What sort of questions are those customers asking?

PH: I think they're asking more specific questions about certain bacteria that you might find in certain settings. So salmonella for example, listeria, campylobacter are all key food poisoning organisms.

SB: Can you describe how you carried out the tests?

PH: Well the simplest tests are when you take the active ingredient, add it to a certain amount of bacteria, wait for five minutes or one minute depending on the test, and then plate it out and count the number of bacteria that have survived. You compare that with some control experiments which haven't had the active ingredient in. More complicated ones we've done are where you put bacteria onto stainless steel surfaces and wipe with wipes impregnated with this material to show that they have been killed. We've also done tests showing that the material stays active for a while on the surface. Then the most complicated tests are where we've had a panel of people using the product to show how effective it is in decolonising and sterilising bacteria that are on your fingers.

SB: The product works against both bacteria and viruses?

PH: Our work has focussed on the bacteriacidal activity of the product.

SB: So how does this product compare to products which have been available in the past?

PH: The key issue with this product is that it's not an alcohol based product. It has a little bit of alcohol in it but a lot of its competitors have a very high level alcohol content. Now alcohol is very effective at killing bacteria, however there are other problems with it, it can damage sensitive material, it has an impact on rubber and plastics sometimes. And also if you are using alcohol products on your hands consistently you can run into problems with reactions and your hands getting sore and cracking. So this product is a non alcohol alternative.

SB: How would you go about developing a product like this?

PH: I think the key issue is, if you're going to develop a new product, exactly what kind of application you're going to use it for. So identify the application, what charactaristics you need it to have to be successful in that application, and then there is a whole range of chemicals you can use to build up this kind of product. All the tests that are required to test this kind of product are available, published by British Standards so it's quite easy to get the tests up and running consistently, so that you know you're doing it the same way each time. But the key issue is what do you want it to do?

SB: They have found that this works quite well against bird flu, is this things like disinfecting vehicles and farm workers after they have been handling animals?

PH: Depending on how it's applied - you can have it as a liquid form, a foam for hands or as a wipe - it can be used for surfaces, hands... I'm not sure it's been used on the big scale for vehicles.

SB: And for hospitals against MRSA?

PH: It's certainly effective against MRSA. MRSA would be killed along with a whole range of other bacteria, so it's available for the hospital market as an alternative to alcohol based products. So yes, it's got a broad spectrum of antimicrobial activity.

SB: Just finally, what other work have you got going on at the moment?

PH: We do a whole range of tests for people developing anti-microbial psimple disinfectants biocides to hand foams to biocidal surfaces.

SB: That's Paul Humphreys, he's been testing a new disinfectant called Clinell, here at the University of Huddersfield.

Now before we go, if you're in the Huddersfield area, why not come along to our next public lecture. It's on Wednesday 28th February and Professor Ted Charsley will be talking about thermal analysis and microcalorimetric techniques. Ful details are on the website at www.hud.ac.uk/sas and that's also where you can get the RSS feed for the podcast. www.hud.ac.uk/sas.

If you have any feedback about the podcast, we'd love to hear from you - our address is science@hud.ac.uk.

So from me Steve Bentley, my guest Paul Humphreys and everyone here in the School of Applied Sciences at the University of Huddersfield, bye for now, stay subscribed and we'll talk to you on the next edition of Science at Huddersfield.