Production of oleamide, a fatty acid amide for combating medical device fouling by the coprophilous fungus, coprinopsis cinerea-a low-cost approach abstract: medical devices play a key role in the treatment of ailments and are meant to substitute, and in some cases restore, biological function. however, the inclusion of synthetic materials used for orthopedics, catheters, infusion lines, vascular stents and grafts, and sutures into a biological environment triggers a foreign body response. the foreign body response to artificial materials often results in biofouling, thereby limiting the clinical lifetime of the device. current estimates place the occurrence of bacterial-related infections for humans at 65% and are associated with the growth of bacterial biofilms on device surfaces. the combination of surface thrombus and biofilm formation that eventually inhibits the functionality of the device is collectively termed biofouling. severe biofouling of medical devices, ultimately failing, is only effectively corrected by the removal and replacement of the device through costly invasive procedures. given the broad scope of medical device use and the physiological environments to which they are exposed makes the design of antifouling materials possessing both antibiofilm and antimicrobial activity is of utmost importance for the effective control of biofouling in clinical settings. primary fatty acid amides are commonly found in grasses, microalgae, and animal are used as slip agents on plastic polyethylene films and other polymers to reduce the friction coefficient or to increase lubricity. oleamide (c18h35no) and erucamide (c22h43no), which are amides of the fatty acids oleic acid and erucic acid, respectively, are two of the most commonly used slip agents. in recent years, coprophilous mushroom are considered as promising organisms in producing new classes of secondary metabolites with unexplored chemical properties. a coprophilous fungus, coprinopsis cinerea, isolated by us from horse dung seems to be a potential fungus in producing some potent metabolites. three isolates of coprophilous fungi were isolated from cow, horse and buffalo dung samples. eleven different culture media were screened to select a suitable medium for growth and maximum biomass production of coprinopsis cinerea under submerged fermentation in vitro. wheat flour medium designed by us supported maximum growth and biomass production (mohankumar and savitha, 2017). a metabolite was identified showing antibacterial activity against biofilm-forming nosocomial pathogens (mohankumar and savitha, 2019). the active fraction was identified as oleamide c18h35no after subjecting to various analytical techniques. the effects of oleamide on the staphylococcus aureus and klebsiella pneumoniae biofilms were evaluated under flow cytometric analysis, scanning electron microscope (sem) and atomic force microscope (afm). the result showed that the antifouling activity oleamide against the biofilm-forming pathogens was based on the cell wall disruption. low-cost production of oleamide was carried out by using wheat flour medium specially designed by us, the physical parameters such as ph, temperature, days of incubation were optimized for maximum production of oleamide. chemical parameters such as carbon, nitrogen sources, trace elements and minerals, inducers, etc were used to optimize the maximum production of oleamide. cultivation of the strain using various agro-waste substrates (wheat bran, wheat straw, ragi bran, rice bran, paddy straw, sisal waste, sawdust, areca husk, cotton husk) for maximum production of oleamide was studied. response surface methodology (rsm), a statistical optimization was performed using box-behnken design and central composite design (ccd) using different optimized parameters from the ofat method was used to maximize the oleamide production. overall it can be concluded that coprinopsis cinerea, a coprophilous mushroom is a potent producer of oleamide, an anti-biofouling agent and can be exploited for combating medical devices fouling. similarly, using various agro-waste substrates and wheat flour broth we can enhance the production oleamide by many folds by optimizing various physical and chemical parameters in both ofat and statistical methods.