Grant: Collaborative Health Research Projects (NSERC partnered)

"This proposed research is focused on the development of new functional biomaterials for the repair of chronic degradation and infection of skin. Loss of nerves and sensitivity occur in the skin of extremities in chronic type II diabetes, often resulting in epithelial erosion and ulceration. In addition to the loss of sensitivity, the chronic ulceration renders the skin prone to bacterial infection that can lead to gangrene and amputations. In addition, although skin and skin substitutes have been around for a long time for use in burn patients, there are still issues with scarring, especially for deeper skin wounds that involve the dermis and sub-cutaneous fat tissue. Successful strategies for such reconstruction of skin depend crucially on the availability of scaffold materials that (1) recapitulate the native extracellular matrix (ECM) environment (a largely collagenous matrix with proteoglycans and cell interactive proteins such as laminin and fibronectin) and (2) incorporate anti-microbial or anti-septic constituents for preventing or managing infections. The assembled team has complimentary expertise in the development of hydrogel scaffold materials (based on natural and synthetic macromolecules) for regenerative medicine, engineered peptides with anti-microbial activity, microbiology of biofilms, and particle-based nanomaterials for drug delivery and diagnostic applications. In this project, we will apply our expertise to create novel nanocomposite biomaterials for skin regeneration based on engineered collagen scaffolds that incorporate modular designer proteins with cell binding, antibacterial activity, and signally abilities and metallic nanoparticles with innate and patient-safe antimicrobial activity."