Allison Cowin

Future Industries Institute, University of South Australia

Abstract:
The development of new technologies and therapeutic approaches for the treatment of burn injuries and scarring is of great importance. Globally burns affect 11 million people each year and are a significant cost to health care systems. Despite all best endeavours there are still limited wound care products on the market which actively stimulate the healing process and lead to perfect regeneration of the skin after injury.  Our current research is aimed at investigating novel targets for new therapeutic approaches, developing new dressings, and identifying new methods to combat infection and microbial resistance. In this presentation some of these new approaches for the treatment of burn injuries will be outlined including the development of new dressings to deliver stem cells to wounds which improve healing responses, the use of nanoparticles to deliver antibodies to burns and new antibody-based approaches aimed at reducing inflammation in burns.