Development of precision medicine
In this project, led by Cecilie Bredrup and Stian K. Almeland, the researchers are using mesenchymal stem cell transplantation to heal wounds of the eye and skin.
Chronic, non-healing, and large wounds are debilitating conditions that burden patients and healthcare systems. Advanced wound care developments involving cell-based therapies are emerging as promising treatment options. Mesenchymal stem cells (MSC) have many advantages for such use: they can be easily obtained, are easy to culture in vitro to clinical scales, can be cryopreserved without loss of potency, and allogenic MSC can be transplanted without the need for immunosuppression.
This project will use current clinically approved protocols for autologous bone-marrow derived MSC and examine their effectiveness in selected groups of patients with wound healing problems of the skin and eye. Autologous MSC will be isolated and propagated at the Helse Bergen GMP approved Ex Vivo facility. This will secure a regulatory approved production pipeline from the point of harvesting bone marrow throughout production and delivery to patients in this project's phase I clinical trials. Treatment effect will be measured using sophisticated and innovative methods, developing a future biomarker program for cell therapy of wounds. In addition, preclinical experiments to evaluate the safety and efficacy of allogenic cells will be performed with the long-term aim of using these in clinical trials.
Jenssen AB, Mohamed-Ahmed S, Kankuri E, Brekke RL, Guttormsen AB, Gjertsen BT, Mustafa K, Almeland SK. Administration Methods of Mesenchymal Stem Cells in the Treatment of Burn Wounds. Eur. Burn J. 2022, 3, 493–516. (Review) https://doi.org/10.3390/ebj3040043
Professor, Leader of the Tissue Engineering Research Group and Center of Translational Oral Research (TOR), Department of Clinical Dentistry (IKO), UiB
Photo: Ingvild Festervoll Melien
Professor, Department of Clinical Medicine, University of Bergen and Department of Opthalmology, Haukeland University Hospital
Senior Consultant, Department of Opthalmology, Haukeland University Hospital
Senior Consultant, Department of Opthalmology, Haukeland University Hospital
Senior Consultant, Department of Opthalmology, Haukeland University Hospital
Associate professor, Tissue Engineering Research Group, Department of Clinical Dentistry, UiB
Photo: Anders Lund
Recently, researchers in the Wound Healing-project and collaborators received a large grant for developing and validating an advanced biodegradable matrix and delivery system for treatment of severe burn injuries with mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs).
