Application deadline: 3rd March
Interviews to be held: 31 March 2021
The incidence of chronic wounds are increasing due to a growing and ageing population. Patients who are more susceptible to chronic ulcers include the elderly and diabetics. Over £2billion was spent on wound care in 2014 alone. Advanced wound care products are needed on chronic wounds as without intervention approximately 50% of these wounds do not heal.
The role of electrical regimes in skin has been documented, with local ionic currents playing a part in directing epidermal cell migration when closing full thickness wounds.
It has been recently documented that externally applied electrical stimulus can influence cell activity, both increasing cell proliferation and increasing differentiation and extracellular matrix production. This project will investigate the development of a fibrous conductive polymer wound dressing with a capacitive applied electrical field, that has the potential to aid the healing of chronic ulcers.
Main question to answered
1) What is the current state of the art regarding application of electrical regime to wounds?
2) Can the use of conductive polymers improve the wound repair by either altering the status of macrophages resident in the chronic ulcer or by increasing the proliferation / extracellular matrix production by dermal fibroblasts?
3) Can the use of an applied electrical regime via the conductive polymers improve the wound repair?
4) What is the optimal design of a conductive polymer wound dressing to ensure homogeneity of electrical field to be applied throughout the wound?
5) What is the mechanism of action of any proof of concept data obtained in this project?
EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Biomedical Materials
This project is part of the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Advanced Biomedical Materials. All available projects are listed here.
Find out how to apply, with full details on eligibility and funding here.
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