Bio-engineering a human skin flap for reconstructive surgery

Reconstructive surgery aims to provide functional and aesthetic outcomes for patients with serious skin defects arising from trauma, cancer resection or diabetic wounds.

Current surgical procedures for reconstruction of skin defects involves removal of healthy skin elsewhere on the patient’s body to create a skin flap, which is then sutured into the skin defect. This can have complications such as thrombosis or infection of the flap, or loss of flap sensation.
Advances in stem cell therapies have demonstrated that personalised tissues can be grown in the lab, positing a significant opportunity for reconstructive surgery of skin.

This project leverages human induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs) to innovate personalised treatments for skin reconstruction. Human iPSCs can be derived from blood cells and then directed to become the various cell types needed to create lab-grown skin tissue: keratinocytes, fibroblasts, sensory neurons, etc. Further, advances in material science have demonstrated that when stem cells are grown on various materials their fate is influenced. These materials can provide a scaffold for constructing living tissues into a 3D shape using biofabrication.
The goal of this project is to develop protocols and techniques to lab-grow skin that can sense touch. Training in hiPSC cell culture, immunostaining/imaging, biofabrication and material science will be provided.

The experimental work for this project will be undertaken at the BioFab3D, ACMD Lab at St Vincent’s Hospital Melbourne and at the St Vincent’s Institute of Medical Research.