News about the Network. 2024 PhD Completion Sara Medina-Lombardero defended her thesis entitled: “The mechanical properties of wounded skin for a quantitative monitoring of healing”. Inaugural lectures On May 16th 2024, the Institute of Genetics and Cancer hosted three inaugural lectures under the theme “Skin: Discover the World Beneath the Surface.” Join these skin experts to explore emerging research into eczema, skin inflammation, the effects of sunlight on skin and skin cancer. Professor Sara Brown, Grant Chair of Dermatology. Professor Liz Patton, Chair of Functional and Translational Genomics Professor Richard Weller Personal Chair of Medical Dermatology Watch the Skin inaugural lecture showcase Funding Scottish Enterprise High Growth Spinout – TissueMetrics, spin out to commercialise acoustic sensor (Crichton lab) Royal Society of Edinburgh Collaborative Award – Bringing inclusivity into biomechanics-based technologies (Crichton lab) British Skin Foundation PhD studentship – Decoding the human skin ulcer niche using single cell spatial omics (Cash lab) Recent publications Medina-Lombardero S, Bain C, Charlton L, Pellicoro A, Rocliffe H, Cash J, Reuben R, Crichton ML. The biomechanics of wounds at physiologically relevant levels: Understanding skin's stress-shielding effect for the quantitative assessment of healing. Mater Today Bio. 25:100963. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mtbio.2024.100963 2024 Jan 17. Yonlada Nawilaijaroen, Holly Rocliffe, Shani Austin-Williams, Georgios Krilis, Antonella Pellicoro, Kanheng Zhou, Yubo Ji, Connor A Bain, Alastair M Kilpatrick, Yuhang Chen, Asok Biswas, Michael Crichton, Zhihong Huang, Stuart J Forbes, Andrea Caporali, Jenna L Cash.. MC1R reduces scarring and rescues stalled healing in a preclinical chronic wound model. https://doi.org/10.1101/2022.11.30.518516 2024. Weller R. Sunlight: Time for a Rethink? https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jid.2023.12.027 2024. Glover JD, Sudderick ZR, Shih BB, Batho-Samblas C, Charlton L, Krause AL, Anderson C, Riddell J, Balic A, Li J, Klika V, Woolley TE, Gaffney EA, Corsinotti A, Anderson RA, Johnston LJ, Brown SJ, Wang S, Chen Y, Crichton ML, Headon DJ. The developmental basis of fingerprint pattern formation and variation. Cell. 2023 Mar 2;186(5):940-956.e20. doi: 10.1016/j.cell.2023.01.015. 2023 Feb. Riddell J, Noureen SR, Sedda L, Glover JD, Ho WKW, et al.. Rapid mechanosensitive migration and dispersal of newly divided mesenchymal cells aid their recruitment into dermal condensates. PLOS Biology 21(9): e3002316. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pbio.3002316 2023. 2023 Edinburgh Skin Network holds first symposium Ed-SKIN has held its first symposium in Edinburgh. Ed-SKIN was formed to bring people together to better understand skin health, disease and personal care. It is a passionate, multi-disciplinary collaboration between leading biomedical scientists, dermatologists, engineers, vets, physicists and technology and innovation specialists united by the goal of accelerating next generation skincare. The first Ed-SKIN symposium was an interdisciplinary networking event was held at the Playfair Library on 8th June. The event showcased the pioneering skin research being undertaken across Edinburgh institutes, complemented by keynote talks provided by Prof John McGrath (Kings College London) and Dr Ben Almquist (Imperial College London). Around 1.9 billion people, almost a third of the world’s population, are affected by over 3,000 skin diseases. Leading culprits are eczema, wounds, psoriasis and skin cancers. Skin diseases can therefore have a profound impact on an individuals’ mental and physical well-being. When the idea for Ed-SKIN arose back in 2020, I never imagined that it would develop into such a rich and enthusiastic interdisciplinary network. It is incredibly exciting seeing how Ed-SKIN is growing and stimulating new collaborations and a sense of community within the skin research field at Edinburgh. We have over 80 members now, spanning all University of Edinburgh campuses, Heriot Watt University and NHS Lothian Dr Jenna Cash, Ed-SKIN Founder and Chair Winner of best early career researcher (ECR) talk prize was Dr Jana Travnickova (Postdoc, Prof Liz Patton's Lab at the MRC Human Genetics Unit at the MRC Institute for Genetics and Cancer). Winner of best poster prize was Abigail Elliot (PhD student, Dr Yi Feng's Lab at the Centre for Inflammation Research in IRR). Image Edinburgh Skin Network symposium attendees Image 2022 Farewell Dr Dobie Image Dr Ross Dobie and Dr Rose Ruiz Daniels We say a fond farewell to Dr Ross Dobie, co-founder and co-chair of Ed-SKIN. Ross has been an absolute gem to work with and has been instrumental in working with Dr Jenna Cash to get Ed-SKIN going. Ross is leaving UoE to join Malvern Pananalytics at Nine in the BioQuarter. We also welcome our new Deputy Chair, Dr Rose Ruiz Daniels! Rose works on Salmonid skin immunology in the context of sea lice resistance at the Roslin Institute. Publications Check out the latest review from the Radacsi group: Combination of 3D Printing and Electrospinning Techniques for Biofabrication. (2022). Dan-Lei Yang, Fazal Faraz, Lie-Xin Wang, Norbert Radacsi Advanced Materials Technologies. DOI: 10.1002/admt.202101309 Advanced Materials Technologies paper Radacsi group page Grants SWEA has awarded £99,970 for a public engagement project called '2000 voices'. The purpose of the project is to amplify eczema patient voices and share their experiences of living with eczema. The project is over 3 years and it is a collaboration with Bev Hood, ASCUS Art & Science, Dee Davidson, Eczema Outreach & the Brown Lab . SWEA Beverly Hood The Brown Lab ASCUS Art and Science 2021 Image Dr Anabel Martinez Lyon who designed the Ed-SKIN logo Ed-SKIN logo competition winner Congratulations to Dr Anabel Martinez-Lyon who won the Ed-SKIN logo competition! Anabel is a CRUK Research Fellow working in the Boulter lab at the MRC Human Genetics Unit, Edinburgh University. This article was published on 2024-07-08
