Biofilms in chronic infections / Revisiting skin integrity, skin frailty and skin health in a peri pandemic world

Prof Bjarnsholt is a global expert in the role of biofilms in chronic infections, with over 240 peer reviewed publications in the biofilm field including the ESCMID guidelines for biofilm treatment and Consensus guidelines for the identification and treatment of biofilms in chronic nonhealing wounds published in WRR. His research focuses on biofilm formation and the role of bacterial biofilm in chronic infections, both in vitro, animal models and ex vivo material from chronic infections. Bjarnsholt is interested as to how bacteria initiate biofilms in the human body and why the immune defense seems to fail both in the initial infection and later in the chronic infection. His research also seeks to develop tools and methods to enable fast diagnosis of these infections, for better treatment and possible prevention. For this, Bjarnsholt works in close collaboration with clinicians at most of the major hospitals in Denmark.

Karen is Professor and Director for the Institute of Skin Integrity and Infection Prevention, University of Huddersfield, Visiting Professor, Queensland University of Technology and the Royal college of Surgeons, Dublin; previous academic editor for Wounds UK. She is elected chair of the International Wound Infection Institute and the International Skin Tears Advisory Panel (Europe). Her clinical background is in orthopaedics and tissue viability. She has over 30 years’ experience in both clinical practice and in academia. She is widely published (in excess of 140 papers) and has edited 2 text books.

Barbara is Head of Pharmacy at the University of Huddersfield. She was appointed as Professor of Pharmaceutics at the University of Huddersfield in 2010. Following her first degree in Pharmacy at Queen’s University, Belfast, she registered as a pharmacist in 1990 and practised full-time in community pharmacy until joining Aston University in Birmingham in 1992 to undertake a Ph.D. Her PhD research project at Aston was in the pharmaceutics and drug delivery field, focusing on microencapsulation for delivery of biopharmaceuticals.

Following completion of her PhD studies in 1995, she was employed in various posts at Aston University, including lecturer and senior lecturer and was Director of the M.Pharm. programme prior to moving to the University of Huddersfield in 2010 as Professor of Pharmaceutics. During this time, she also became a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and supervised projects on the application of e-learning technologies in Pharmacy. She was also a Medici Fellow, specialising in driving forward innovation within the university sector and hold several patents in the pharmaceutical area. She has supervised over 20 Ph.D. students and on-going research programmes focus on chrontherapeutic delivery and delivery of antimicrobials, novel excipients for drug delivery, the mechanical properties of pharmaceuticals and excipients and the development of chewing gum delivery systems.

She has a number of successful collaborations with other universities, NHS and pharmaceutical industry leading to publications and development of new products.

Master of Science (Social Science Research) (MSc)
Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (FHEA)
Postgraduate Certificate in Education (CertEd)
Registered Nurse (RN)

Samantha's role encompasses both undergraduate and postgraduate activities within the School of Medicine. Working as a Reader, she is responsible for delivering the Masters in Wound Healing and Tissue Repair which continues to be held in regard both nationally and internationally. Samantha also provides specialist advice on wound healing for the medical undergraduate programme. Samantha is the current External Examiner for the University of Huddersfield (2019-2023), and has been a member of the International Skin Tear Advisory Panel (ISTAP) since 2011 and represented the United Kingdom until May 2020 when she was then appointed President-Elect (2020-2022). Samantha is now the current President of ISTAP (2022-2024), the Chair of the European Wound Management Association (EWMA) Education Committee (2019-2023) providing advice on the educational activities of the association. Samantha's also the Chair of the EWMA Teacher Network who have successfully completed and published Level 4, 5, 6, and 7 Wound Management Curricula to inform nurse education across Europe. Samantha is the Academic Editor for the Wounds UK journal and on the Editorial Board for the Chronic Wound Care supplement of the British Journal of Community Nursing, as well as also undertaking peer review of manuscripts for a number of journals including; Journal of Tissue Viability, British Journal of Nursing, Journal of Wound Care and International Wound Care Journal. Samantha has published / co-authored over 87publications and have also supervised over 70 Graduates to successful completion of the MSc in Wound Healing and Tissue Repair.