Investigating the efficacy of GelDerm* in detection of wound infection in a rat model

Burn injuries and wounds caused by burns are big health problems and in Canada alone cost nearly $290 million. Additionally, these wounds usually persist and become infected and subsequently drastically compromise patients’ health, result in significantly longer hospitalization, delayed wound healing, higher costs and higher risk of death. Therefore, prevention and management of wound infections have priority in treatment of burn patients. In order to early diagnose microbial infections in wounds and accelerate wound healing to such injuries, 4M Biotech under leadership of Dr. Akbari has developed a smart dressing in a form of a gel patch referred to as GelDerm* and confirmed it efficacy using in vitro and ex vivo models. The objective of the proposed study is to test the efficacy of GelDerm* in an animal model to evaluate the efficacy of GelDerm* to detect wound infection by sensing the variations in wound pH. We anticipate that the application of GelDerm would enhance the early detection of wound infection and thus provide the opportunity for timely interventions to treat wound infection.

Faculty Supervisor:

Aziz Ghahary

Student:

Navid Karimi

Partner:

4M Biotech

Discipline:

Medicine

Sector:

Life sciences

University:

University of British Columbia