Our focus
Chronic wounds are a large and growing burden on patients and health systems. Many stall despite good standard care, often because of tissue hypoxia, persistent inflammation and poor control of the wound environment.
Our work starts from the biology of repair: what a stalled wound bed is missing, and how care can supply it in hospital, post-acute and home settings.
Clinical background
A summary of the wound biology behind current approaches to chronic wound care.
Negative pressure: mechanisms
- Macrodeformation
- Contraction under negative pressure draws wound edges together.
- Microdeformation
- Mechanical stress at the wound interface stimulates cell proliferation and granulation tissue.
- Fluid management
- Removal of exudate and reduction of interstitial edema.
- Closed environment
- A sealed, moist wound bed with reduced dressing-change frequency.
Oxygen: role in repair
- Bacterial killing
- Neutrophil oxidative burst via NADPH oxidase is oxygen-dependent.
- Collagen synthesis
- Prolyl and lysyl hydroxylation, required for stable collagen, consume molecular oxygen.
- Angiogenesis
- Oxygen-sensitive signaling supports new capillary formation in the wound bed.
- Epithelialization
- Keratinocyte migration and proliferation are energy- and oxygen-dependent.
Inflammation and bioburden
- Stalled inflammation
- Chronic wounds show persistent neutrophil activity, elevated proteases and degraded growth factors.
- Biofilm
- Bacterial communities protected by matrix resist host defenses and many antimicrobials.
- Senescent cells
- Fibroblasts and keratinocytes at the wound edge can lose their ability to respond to repair signals.
- Debridement
- Removing non-viable tissue and biofilm helps reset the wound toward an acute healing response.
The IWGDF 2023 guidelines on interventions to enhance healing of diabetic foot ulcers make conditional recommendations for six adjunct interventions where best standard care alone has not healed the wound: sucrose octasulfate dressings, negative pressure wound therapy for post-operative wounds, placental-derived products, the autologous leucocyte/platelet/fibrin patch, topical oxygen therapy and hyperbaric oxygen.
Collaborate with us
We are building relationships with wound care clinicians and centers, including:
Clinical advisors
Share your experience of unmet needs, workflow and what patients struggle with.
Research partners
Centers interested in future clinical studies.
Distribution partners
Organizations in wound care and home health.