A Critical Call for Mechanistic Investigations of Metal‐Bacteria Interactions

The antibacterial properties of metals have been recognized for millennia. It is thus well established that this antibacterial response has tremendous importance for bioengineering applications, driving ever-increasing resources for research efforts, especially over the last few decades. What is less appreciated across the thousands of scientific investigations that appear in the literature, however, is the reproducibility crisis stemming from various challenging aspects of this research. In this perspective, we highlight this reproducibility problem, discuss its sources, and suggest solutions towards focused, mechanistic, interdisciplinary investigations. To make these recommendations operational, we provide a source-specific experimental roadmap, identify priority mechanistic questions with concrete investigation pathways, and highlight representative studies that combine causal perturbations, orthogonal measurements, and cross-laboratory validation.

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Publication Details

Journal
Advanced Materials
Published
2026-10-15
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1002/adma.75378
Primary Topic
Antimicrobial agents and applications
Type
article
Field-Weighted Citation Impact
0.00
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article

A Critical Call for Mechanistic Investigations of Metal‐Bacteria Interactions

Amit Kumar Bandyopadhyay, Susmita Bose, Noam Eliaz, Jeremy L. Gilbert et al.
Advanced Materials
Antimicrobial agents and applications
article

A Critical Call for Mechanistic Investigations of Metal‐Bacteria Interactions

Amit Kumar Bandyopadhyay, Susmita Bose, Noam Eliaz, Jeremy L. Gilbert, Frank Mücklich, Raymond Joseph Turner, Shimshon Belkin, Julian Rackwitz, Terry C. Lowe, Cemal Cem Taşan
article en

Abstract

The antibacterial properties of metals have been recognized for millennia. It is thus well established that this antibacterial response has tremendous importance for bioengineering applications, driving ever-increasing resources for research efforts, especially over the last few decades. What is less appreciated across the thousands of scientific investigations that appear in the literature, however, is the reproducibility crisis stemming from various challenging aspects of this research. In this perspective, we highlight this reproducibility problem, discuss its sources, and suggest solutions towards focused, mechanistic, interdisciplinary investigations. To make these recommendations operational, we provide a source-specific experimental roadmap, identify priority mechanistic questions with concrete investigation pathways, and highlight representative studies that combine causal perturbations, orthogonal measurements, and cross-laboratory validation.

Advanced Materials
Medical University of South Carolina (US), Tel Aviv University (IL), Colorado School of Mines (US), University of Calgary (CA), Hebrew University of Jerusalem (IL), Massachusetts Institute of Technology (US), Washington State University (US), Clemson University (US), Saarland University (DE)
Openalex Percentile: Top 26%
Antimicrobial agents and applications
DOIOpen Access PDFOpenAlex
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