Dressing ‘revolution’ seeks artificial skin for burn victims
An Urgo employee shows the type of severe wounds that could be treated by the artificial skin developed by the French dressing manufacturer as part of the Genesis project at the Urgo site in Chenove, eastern France, on 16 December 16, 2022. (Photo by ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP)
Far from the humble sticking plaster, medical firms and researchers are seeking to create the "ultimate dressing" — artificial skin they hope will revolutionize the treatment of severe burns.
For the last 18 months, researchers from the French firm Urgo have been working towards achieving this Holy Grail of wound treatment, which would save serious burn victims from the painful and repeated skin grafts they currently endure.
The 100-million-euro ($106,000-million) "Genesis" project hopes to have a product ready by 2030.
Guirec Le Lous, the president of Urgo's medical arm, told AFP that it is a "crazy" project.
"Are we capable of designing artificial skin in a laboratory? No one in the world has succeeded," he said.
Inside Urgo's laboratory in Chenove, near the eastern French city of Dijon, living cells are being chilled before they can be cultivated.
"You have to be able to recreate all the functions of skin," including protecting against external threats and regulating the temperature, Le Lous said.
It must also be relatively easy to make, because artificial skin must be "available for all and at the right price," he said, without revealing the exact technology or type of cells Urgo is using.