METU-gene/Projects



==Preliminary project description==

In case of bulk loss of tissue or non-healing wounds such as burns, trauma, diabetic, decubitus and venous stasis ulcers, a proper wound dressing is needed to cover the wound area, protect the damaged tissue, and if possible to activate the cell proliferation and stimulate the healing process. By this purpose, designing a wound dressing which is natural, non-toxic, and biodegradable and imitating the actual wound healing mechanism which is forming on open wounds in mammalian tissues is our main purpose.By this wound covering, we will fasten the healing process, and protect the wounded area from infectious agents. In this wound dressing, there will be 4 layers:

- Thick Polyurethane layer: This layer will be protective and cover the outer part of our wound dressing.

- Lb Agar and Bacteria containing layer: In this layer, our transgenic bacteria and its culture will be present. There will be two bacterial colonies available in this layer. First colony will be able to synthesize hEGF( human epidermal growth factor) and second colony will be able to synthesize hKGF-1 (Human keratinocyte growth factor-1). The communication between these colonies will be dependent on quorum sensing molecules such as Al-2 and AHL. By this quorum sensing and growth factor synthesis, we will mimic the proliferative phase of the wound healing mechanism which is actually occuring in mammalian tissue.

- Thin polyurethane membrane: This membrane will allow small molecules such as our growth factors pass through but not any bacteria from our bacteria colonies.

- Gelatin sponge: This layer will mimic the inflammatory phase of healing phase. We will add the isolated and purified granulysin protein, which has antimicrobial and anti-tumor effects. This protein will kill the bacteria and decrease the cancer risk to minimum level. Moreover, gelatin, the material which the sponge is produced from, cause anti-protease activity on tissues. Thereby, the biodegradable gelatin delays the degradation of growth factors present and accelerate the healing rate of wounds.