Fibrosis

Scarring affects over 20 million people in the UK. While it is an important part of the natural skin wound repair process, excessive scarring, termed fibrosis. This can have a significant impact on patient quality of life because of the unsightly appearance, functional impairment, and symptoms including itch and pain. Common examples of fibrotic skin conditions include scleroderma, and keloid and hypertrophic scars. Current medical therapies aimed at treating skin fibrosis have limited efficacy, and surgical removal of the scar tissue is associated with high recurrence rates. Further research is desperately needed to develop better therapies.

Key themes include

• Hypertrophic scar formation is a frequent postoperative complication of cleft lip repair; a range of cleft lip and palate outcomes are evaluated, identifying early predictors of outcomes, cleft epidemiological studies, perioperative care and standards and access to cleft care globally (Mehendale).
• Investigating incidence and outcome of skin injuries in the naked mole rat (Mehendale, Salloum).
• Research project and clinical trial management relating to the study of skin fibrosis, including evaluating the use of novel medical devices and imaging modalities focused on scleroderma (Ennis).
• Mechanisms underlying scar formation versus regeneration (Cash, Saunders, Nizar, West)
• High content screening for biomarker discovery and drug mechanism of action in skin fibrosis assays (Carragher).   

Carragher Lab

Cash Lab