Biological mechanisms of skin integrity and regeneration
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Use of human skin tissue to understand skin homeostasis and the mechanisms regulating skin regeneration during wound healing
IRAS ID
179957
Contact name
Nik Georgopoulos
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
5 years, 0 months, 0 days
Research summary
The human skin represents a powerful barrier to infection by pathogens and also has an incredible ability to repair when it is damaged.
Understanding the biological mechanisms that regulate human skin barrier maintenance as well as how the human skin repairs during damage (when it is wounded) are critical in order to a) understand how such mechanisms fail (for instance in chronic wounds) and b) to develop antimicrobial (antibacterial) agents that can efficiently penetrate human skin.
The project has two main aims:
a) to study the presence of the proteins (cell growth factors) associated with normal, efficient wound healing and to establish in vitro models that will mimic acute and chronic wound conditions in order to understand how these mechanisms malfunction in chronic wounds that do not heal, and
b) to test a variety of antimicrobial agents (pharmaceuticals) for their ability to penetrate human skin.The project will allow us to better understand the mechanisms of successful wound healing and to develop strategies to improve the healing process is patients with severe burns or chronic wounds (e.g. diabetic patients). Moreover, by discovering pharmaceutics that are more efficient at penetrating human skin, the aim is to develop better antimicrobial agents, which has important implications in controlling infection in the clinic.
REC name
East Midlands - Leicester Central Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
15/EM/0265
Date of REC Opinion
15 Jun 2015
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion