SkinTERM stands for Skin Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine and aims to convert the normal mode of skin repair into skin regeneration by delivering excellently and multidisciplinary trained scientists able to take this research area to the next level. Today’s standard treatment of skin burns and large trauma is transplantation of autologous split-thickness skin. This carries a number of serious drawbacks, including pain, mobility-limiting contractures and disfiguring scars. SkinTERM aims to address wound healing in a completely different way, recapitulating regeneration rather than repair. Skin organogenesis will be induced by key elements taken from the extracellular matrix of foetal skin and the skin of species that exhibit no scarring in the regeneration process, and by employing (stem) cells from relevant cellular origins.
The project aims to create a new generation of entrepreneurial, multidisciplinary and intersectorially trained scientists with excellent career prospects in either academia, industry or government. Early stage researchers trained in this programme will be able to drive this research area further towards clinical translation in Europe.
More information can be found at SkinTERM partners and individual ESR projects.
Individual Research Projects
- ESR 1: Construction and evaluation of informative scaffolds for scarless skin regeneration
The Netherlands - ESR 2: Identification and application of specific elastin hydrolysates for scarless skin regeneration
The Netherlands - ESR 3: Examination of cellular infiltration and microenvironmental factors involved in scar-less healing/regeneration in Acomys (spiny mouse) compared to ordinary mouse
Portugal - ESR 4: Examination of factors that promote the differentiation of mesenchymal cells to scar-free fibroblasts
The Netherlands - ESR 5: Development of a dermal tissue based authentic collagen matrix for medical application (Authentic Tissue Template)
Germany - ESR 6: Development and application of histology-directed proteomics of extracellular matrix proteins associated with scarless skin regeneration
Germany - ESR 7: Studying the cell lineage-specific mechanisms accountable for scarless skin regeneration
Germany - ESR 8: Isolation and propagation of sweat gland stem cells for bioengineered ‘sweatable’ skin
Germany - ESR 9: Incorporation of hair follicle proto-follicles in skin constructs and study of their influence on skin structure and behaviour
United Kingdom - ESR 10: Role of macrophages on vascularisation and repair/regeneration of bio-engineered human skin
Switzerland - ESR 11: Role of innervation on prevascularisation and regeneration in bioengineered human skin
Switzerland - ESR 12: Translation of research grade (bench) manufacturing process into an automated GMP process for first-in-human clinical trials
Switzerland