Eva Gershkovich
Department of Desalination and Water TreatmentDr. Gabriel Rubanenko Prize for Excellence in Water Research, 2007-8
Eva Gershkovich, is a M.Sc. student at the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research, Jacob Blaustein Institutes for Desert Research, Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. Eva was born in 1982 in Bendery, Moldova and lived there with her family until 1990. When she was 8 years old the family immigrated to Israel and settled down in Beer-Sheva, located in the northern Negev, where she lives since then. In high-school Eva focused on biology and chemistry studies and got her diploma in 2000. After graduating, she was called up to the army, where she served in the navy for almost 2 years. |
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| When she finished her army service Eva worked for 5 years in the 'Super-Pharm' drug store, and during that time she was enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree program in Chemistry at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev. After graduation, Eva continued into a Master’s program at the Department of Desalination and Water Treatment in the Zuckerberg Institute for Water Research under the supervision of Dr. Roni Kasher. Her research deals with the common problem of biofilm formation on reverse osmosis membranes used in desalination processes. Eva is trying to examine whether the use of antimicrobial peptides can reduce biofilm formation on the membranes and thereby improve the desalination process. | |
Description of research:
Immobilization of multivalent antimicrobial peptides onto reverse osmosis polyamide membranes
Supervisor: Dr. Roni Kasher
Abstract:
A major problem encountered in operating reverse osmosis (RO) desalination processes is biofouling, caused by bacterial adhesion and growth on the surface of the membrane.
This research focuses on an alternative approach to prevent biofilm formation on RO membranes, that relies on covalent attachment of multivalent active biomaterials such as antimicrobial peptides to the solid polymeric membranes in a way that preserves the conformation, and hence the biological activity, of the peptides.
Antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) are components of a living organism’s innate immunity. These peptides are non toxic to humans, have antimicrobial activity against a broad range of bacteria and bacteria cannot easily develop resistance against them. The AMPs mode of action consists of association with the bacterial membrane and its perturbation, which leads to cell lysis.
We suggest using a multivalent structure, which consists of multiple copies of a peptide attached to a single linker molecule on the RO membrane, to enhance the antimicrobial activity of the peptides.
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The monomeric AMPs were synthesized via solid phase peptide synthesis (SPPS), using an automated peptide synthesizer and their structure was confirmed by mass spectrometry (MS) and reverse phase high pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC) analysis.
The multivalent structures were synthesized using a reactive polymer or dendrimeric scaffold as the linker molecule. To confirm the structure we used nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) analysis. The molecular weight distribution of the polymers will be determined by a gel permeation chromatography (GPC) system.
So far we have succeeded to prepare a multi-peptide-polymer construct that will be immobilized in subsequent stages onto RO membranes. The antimicrobial activity of the immobilized peptides will be evaluated using a biological assay and then more dendrimers and multivalent constructs will be synthesized to achieve higher activity of the peptides. This work, if successful, will lay the basis for development of a new approach to treat biofouling on RO membranes.
