Nicholas Evans, Lecturer in Bioengineering, is developing therapies for stimulating skin regeneration that may someday benefit millions of people each year recovering from surgeries like caesarean sections, or from skin cancer, accidents and burns.
“When we have a skin wound, keratinocytes – the predominant cell type in the outermost layer of the skin – need to know that there is a wound and how to crawl back over it,” says Nick. “In my research I am asking questions about the stiffness and topography of a wound and how its three-dimensional shape affects this healing process.”
For years, medical researchers have observed that a cut made to a foetus at an early stage of its development will heal without a scar. Nick is probing the secrets of why this happens by growing skin cells in vitro on synthetic wound surfaces to see how they affect the behavior of cells in wound healing. He is collaborating with colleagues in Engineering and the Environment, who help create the simulated wounds on polymers through a process called micro-fabrication.
Though their research is in its early stages, Nick believes that the questions they are asking about the mechanical characteristics of skin wounds – like the amount of tension on the wound site– along with advances in technology, point the way to a hopeful future for skin healing.
Other University of Southampton sites
