Designing an innervated culture device to study skin wound healing

The skin provides an important protective barrier for the body. When this barrier is compromised due to injury or other insults, the skin responds by initiating a process called wound healing to restore the barrier function. Wound healing is driven by specialized cells in the skin that respond to molecular signals following injury. When wound healing fails to initiate this leads to chronic, non-healing wounds that cause issues such as pain and risk of infection, overall reducing the quality of life. Virtually every tissue of the body contains nerves which connect peripheral organs and tissues to the brain. Previous research has shown that nerves can promote wound healing, but it not clearly understood how. Furthermore, there is a need to establish models of nerve-cell interactions using cell culture systems. The objective of this research project is to develop a platform to combine peripheral nerves and cells of the skin to study the role of nerves in modulating the response of skin to injury and develop new therapeutics to promote wound healing. Understanding how nerves promote wound healing will help to develop treatments that will improve patient quality of life and reduce the costs associated with wound care.

Faculty Supervisor:

Samantha Payne

Student:

Partner:

Organo Biotech, Inc.

Discipline:

Life Sciences

Sector:

Professional, scientific and technical services

University:

University of Guelph

Program: