Creating a 3 dimensional skin substitute to model normal skin wound healing and scarring using PODS (TM) technology

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Skin wound treatment is a very diverse part of health care provision, encompassing surgical and accidental lacerations, trauma, burns, pressure ulcers, diabetic and venous ulcers. Current technologies for skin replacement remain partially effective in their ability to restore other skin structures, for example the dermis, which is critical to the overall long-term appearance and function of the skin. In this project, a skin substitute will be created using hydrogel engineering combined with keratinocytes, fibroblasts and fibrocytes alongside an exciting new technology known as POlyhedrin Delivery System (PODS). Using the interdisciplinary approaches of hydrogel engineering, wound healing and developmental biology, growth factor releasing PODS will be used to recapitulate the biological stimuli and mechanisms utilised by native skin. Combinations of growth factors will be introduced within the hydrogel moiety and with the introduction of various skin cell types will be used to mimic microenvironmental signals present within native skin and maybe even manipulated further to create complex models of wound healing/scarring. In particular, it is believed that the fibrocyte cell type can be instructed to differentiate into microvasculature, where the growth factor milieu will be key to developing a perfusable ex vivo skin model / substitute.