Notre Dame senior Kevin Armknecht of the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health has been recognized by ND’s Integrated Imaging Facility (NDIIF) with the Best Publication Imaging Award, based on images he created in a recent Nanoscale Advances publication.

Armknecht, a pre-professional studies major with minors in compassionate care in medicine and poverty studies, created these images for the paper, “Antimicrobial peptide-conjugated phage-mimicking nanoparticles exhibit potent bactericidal action against Streptococcus pyogenes in murine wound infection models,” which was a collaborative effort between the Nallathamby, Lee, and Castellino labs. He works in the lab of Prakash Nallathamby, Ph.D., associate director of research at the Berthiaume Institute for Precision Health, and an assistant professor of practice in the bioengineering program housed in the Department of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering in the College of Engineering.

As a member of the lab since the beginning of his junior year, Armknecht has studied the use of nanoparticles in the treatment of Streptococcus pyogenes, a major human-specific bacterial pathogen that causes a wide array of infections, including strep throat. Nallathamby’s lab focuses on nanotechnology as an avenue for novel therapeutics to solve problems like antibiotic resistance.

“Most of the work I do is focused on bacteria… I synthesize nanoparticles and test them against bacteria to see if they’ll work better than antibiotics and if they’re more sustainable in the long term,” Armknecht said. “The nanoparticles are smaller than the bacterial cell so they can infiltrate the cell wall, get into the bacterial cell, and destroy the inner machinery and mechanisms of the bacteria that are used to infect people.”

Of note, Armknecht’s award-winning images showcased the use of nanoparticles joined with a specific peptide called Syn-71 from the lab of Shaun Lee, Ph.D., Monahan Family Associate Professor of Rare and Neglected Diseases. The combination of the peptide with the nanoparticles is what leads to the effective killing of Streptococcus pyogenes, while reducing harm to host cells.

“If we use just the peptide, which is what [other researchers] started doing… it’s very effective at killing the bacteria, but it is not very safe for human cells. Nanoparticles are less cytotoxic to human cells than a lot of antibiotics,” he said. This combination destroys the classic chain structure of the bacteria.

When describing one of his favorite images from the publication, Armknecht said that in the presence of the nanoparticles, the nanoparticles appear to absolutely engulf the bacteria.

“The [bacterial] structure is destroyed, and there is no chain formation. It was a really cool image to see,” Armknecht said.

He honed these imaging skills during an NDnano Undergraduate Research Fellowship (NURF) with the Nallathamby lab during the summer of 2023.

In addition to his fascinating research results and imaging, Armknecht’s hard work and dedication to this project are what prompted his nomination for the award.

Nallathamby noted how Armknecht kept the project moving forward by conducting extensive literature reviews, coming up with experiment ideas, making nanoparticles, conducting tests, and prepping samples for microscopy.

“Kevin is an invaluable asset to the lab,” Nallathamby said. “He works well with everyone, trains new students, does his own work, and doesn’t limit himself. If something needs to be done, he gets it done. I can trust him.”

Armknecht, who is taking a gap year following graduation and applying to medical school, has additionally collaborated on two other research projects in the Nallathamby lab. A manuscript for one of these projects has recently been accepted for publication in Military Medicine, while the third manuscript is in the works.

Originally published by Madison MacDougall at science.nd.edu on May 01, 2024.