Medline Breaks Ground on DFW Distribution Center
Medline (Nasdaq: MDLN) has begun work on its second distribution center in the Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW) metro area.
The new 1.2 million square-foot distribution center, known as the Midlothian facility, is the manufacturer’s second under construction since becoming a publicly listed company in December. Midlothian joins its 800,000 square-foot sister distribution center in Wilmer, Texas, about 30 miles northeast, marking the first time that Medline has two “technologically advanced” distribution centers in a major metropolitan area, the company said in a March 11 announcement.
“Medline continues to invest in this region to develop strong supply chain resiliency, and this is one of the latest examples of the growth of our distribution centers and manufacturing facilities and technology upgrades throughout our system,” said Ed Graves, Medline’s vice president of regional field sales. “All of this is to help us deliver better service to our customers.”
Study: Hydrogels Enable Precision Targeting of Antibiotics to Reduce Risk of Resistant Bacteria
Antibiotic-resistant bacteria make infected wounds harder to treat — so a new study published by Science Advances is describing how biomedical engineers at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, sought to more closely apply an antibiotic solely at the site of the bacterial infection.
The study — “Bacterial enzyme-responsive hydrogels for triggered delivery of antibiotics to infected wounds” — was published March 20 by Science Advances.
Researchers used “a bacterial enzyme-responsive hydrogel formulated with a cephalosporin-derived, β-lactamase–cleavable crosslinker” that degrades when met by bacterial β-lactamases.
“This degradation triggers the on-demand release of encapsulated ciprofloxacin-loaded liposomes, ensuring that antibiotic delivery occurs only at the site of infection,” the study’s authors said, adding that the “selective degradation and release was demonstrated in both ex vivo [tissues outside the body] and in vivo [inside the bodies of live mice] models of Pseudomonas aeruginosa wound infections.”
The hydrogels “did not induce ciprofloxacin resistance in non–β-lactamase–producing bacteria,” thus demonstrating the ability to provide “a precise, infection-triggered antibiotic delivery platform that can improve the treatment of wound infection and mitigate antimicrobial resistance.”
