Development of Biomimetic Wound-Healing Matrices

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Newell R. Washburn, PhD

Carnegie Mellon University

The ultimate goals of this research program are to develop materials capable of promoting wound healing and mitigating inflammation and scar formation by cooperating with native repair processes. By also tuning the viscoelastic, osmotic, and adhesive properties of the matrices and incorporating anti-bacterial agents, the goal is ultimately to offer a material for easy application on the battlefield capable of significantly improving wound-healing outcomes following critical injury.

The final material will serve two critical aims:

• It will mitigate inflammatory responses to minimize tissue necrosis while stabilizing the wound site.
• It will promote tissue regeneration at the injury site.

This research is directed toward determining which are the important cytokines that need to be regulated in order to mitigate but not shut down inflammatory responses and developing materials for doing this. The same basic approach will be taken in developing materials also capable of determining which cytokines should be regulated and how to regulate them in order to promote tissue regeneration.