Navigation auf uzh.ch

CRPP Skin Grafts for Zurich

CRPP: From basic research to the clinic: Novel tissue engineered skin grafts for Zurich.

A clinical research priority program of the University of Zurich

In the collagen scaffold (turquoise) of the new skin, TBRU bioengineers new capillaries (red).

From basic research to the patient: Novel tissue engineered skin grafts for Zurich

After more than 14 years of research, the Tissue Biology Research Unit (TBRU) of the Department of Surgery of the University Children’s Hospital and the Children’s Research Center (CRC) in Zurich, has come up with new skin grafts for Regenerative and Transplantation Medicine.

The complex, bioengineered skin grafts are autologous and resemble the properties of normal human skin as closely as possible. Notably, the close collaboration between the Pediatric Burn Center of the Department of Surgery of the University Children’s Hospital in Zurich and the TBRU revealed that the above-mentioned skin grafts can be transplanted in just one surgical intervention and remain on the patient for her/his lifetime. The new skin grafts are intended to be applied in clinical disciplines, such as Burn, Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and Dermatology, in Zurich, in Switzerland and in Europe.

Two types of bio-engineered skin grafts (denovoSkin and denovoDerm) are presently applied in clinical phase I studies and will be soon used in multicentrical phase II studies in Zurich, Amsterdam and Berlin.

The development of the grafts was and is, based on findings gained by the knowledge and methods of basic research in cell and molecular biology. The translational medical project outlined here aims at Clinical Trials that are presently undertaken in close collaboration with our Pediatric Burn Center, the Swiss Center for Regenerative Medicine (SCRM), the Clinical Trial Center (CTC), the Department of Dermatology of the University Hospital Zurich and partners of the ETH in Zurich.