Improving The Pre-hospital Treatment And Acute Management Of Burned Children
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$359,942.00
Summary
Children’s burns are physically and psychologically debilitating and are a huge burden for the children themselves, their families and the Australian health care system. My work will determine exactly what conditions are required to cause burns so that we can act to prevent them. I will also develop more effective first aid treatment and new treatments to improve burn wound healing.
Developing In Vivo Methods Of Adipose Tissue Engineering
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$374,703.00
Summary
Surgical repair and replacement of soft tissues after tumour removal or to repair existing damage requires fat tissue with a good blood supply. Tissue engineering allows us to create new fat grafts for replacement tissue without causing unnecessary pain or trauma to the patient. We have developed a method for growing fat tissue using a chamber to maintain a space for the tissue to grow into, a blood vessel to supply nutrients to the growing tissue, cells or tissue from the host to encourage cell ....Surgical repair and replacement of soft tissues after tumour removal or to repair existing damage requires fat tissue with a good blood supply. Tissue engineering allows us to create new fat grafts for replacement tissue without causing unnecessary pain or trauma to the patient. We have developed a method for growing fat tissue using a chamber to maintain a space for the tissue to grow into, a blood vessel to supply nutrients to the growing tissue, cells or tissue from the host to encourage cell growth and migration and a matrix or scaffold to support the developing tissue and guide it to form the type of tissue we want (fat, muscle etc). We have shown that the tissue graft may cause fat to grow due to causing an inflammatory reaction and confirmed this by adding a mild inflammatory compound to the chamber instead of a tissue graft. This compound caused the chamber to grow fat tissue. The aim of this project is to determine which of the growth factors or other signaling factors released by the inflammation process is responsible for causing fat tissue production and to identify what cells are being attracted to the chamber to help grow the fat, so that we can further improve our engineering of fat tissue. Understanding the pathways which mediate or stimulate fat growth will provide new opportunities for improving fat growth and allow the engineering of larger fat grafts in larger animals and eventually human clinical application. Beyond that, inflammation is involved in many disease processes (eg. obesity, metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cancer), and these fields of study will also benefit from our research.Read moreRead less
Evaluation A Novel Vitronectin:growth Factor Complex For Treatment Of Chronic Venous Leg Ulcers
Funder
National Health and Medical Research Council
Funding Amount
$854,975.00
Summary
Chronic leg ulcers in the elderly are an important problem, diminshing quality of life and costing at least A$1 billion per year. New treatments are urgently required. This study will test a new topical growth factor therapy designed to have greatly improved activity in wounds.The project is a collaboration between scientists and doctors at the Queensland Univeristy of Technology and the University of Western Australia. Many wound types may ultimately benefit from this treatment.