The Alfred, Monash University leverage bioengineered skin for burn patients

The technique is expected to replace the need for traditional donor sites.

Specialists and researchers at The Alfred and Monash University have designed a bioengineered skin aimed to decrease the need for grafting and reduce the risk of deadly infection.

In a statement, a patient with extensive full-thickness burns was treated using skin grown from his own skin cells.

The technique is expected to replace the need for traditional donor sites, which often require harvesting unburnt skin for grafting, said Heather Cleland, a reconstructive plastic surgeon at The Alfred.

According to Shiva Akbarzadeh, group leader at the Skin Bioengineering Laboratory, the new method involves isolating and expanding a patient’s own skin cells to cultivate new skin.

“By harnessing the body’s natural wound repair mechanisms, we expect little scarring of the treated sites long term,” Akbarzadeh said.

The trial represents a collaborative effort between skin cell biologists and reconstructive surgeons and is funded through the Medical Research Future Fund.