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Daemen College has joined with colleges and universities in Florida, California, Europe, and, most recently, China, in a biotechnology research initiative aimed at developing faster and more effective treatments for chronic wounds, which can include pressure sores, but can also be caused by a variety of conditions.
Representing a rapidly increasing health challenge worldwide, chronic wounds do not heal, and often lead to complications including loss of limb, or, death, as in the case of the late actor Christopher Reeve. Care is costly: estimates for each wound's treatment range from $40-70,000.00. In the United States alone, over $1 billion is spent annually treating chronic wounds.
The new Daemen biotechnology initiative goes to the heart of both national and international healthcare. In the U.S., a major objective of "Healthy People 2010," a series of national health objectives set by the federal government for the first decade of the new century, is to reduce the proportion of long-term care patients diagnosed with pressure ulcers.
Titled Biotechnology in Healthcare, the wound care research project is being partially financed through a federal grant from the Fund for Improvement of Post-Secondary Education (FIPSE) known as the E.C. (European Community) - U.S. Cooperation Program in Higher Education. The goal is to develop a shared curriculum among three U.S. institutions and three European institutions, with the focus being on wound therapy. In addition to Daemen, participating U.S. institutions include Pitzer College in Claremont, California and New College of Florida, in Sarasota. European partner institutions are Athlone Institute of Technology in Athlone, Ireland; Central Ostrobothnia Polytechnic in Kokkola, Finland; and Umwelt-Campus, affiliated with the University of Trier, in Birkenfeld, Germany.
Chinese universities taking part in the wound care research program include Beijing University of Chinese Medicine, and Sichuan University.
"The incidence of chronic wounds is increasing as our population ages," noted Dr. Laura
Edsberg, Director of the Daemen Natural and Health Sciences Research Center. "So it's going to be an even bigger problem in the future. Recent studies reveal that approximately 15 percent of hospitalized individuals, 15-20 percent of nursing home residents, and 25-35 percent of home care populations have chronic wounds."
"Chronic wounds also impact individuals with spinal cord injuries - nearly 300,000 Americans now suffer from these types of injuries," said Dr. Michael S. Brogan, D.P.T., Ph.D., Dean of the Daemen Division of Health and Human Services. "And they are as big a problem throughout the world. In China, for example, millions of people suffer from chronic, non-healing wounds."
The chief grant writer for this project, Daemen chemistry professor Dr. Kathleen E. Murphy, explained that grant funding will allow the consortium to develop a joint core to show how the newest technologies in chemistry, biochemistry, and polymer engineering apply to the issue of chronic wound therapy.
"In addition to taking regular science courses, students in the program will see emerging areas in biotechnology as they pertain to this health issue," she noted. "Smart bandages are one example -- bandages that will actually be able to aid or supplement the body's natural biochemistry to help heal the wound by stimulating the biochemical process, providing oxygen to the wound. Other forms of a smart bandage will provide a drug delivery system using a polymer matrix."
Dr. Murphy points out that virtually any wound that doesn't appear to be healing fast enough - whether caused by shrapnel from a battlefield or from any number of other sources - is what the Biotechnology in Healthcare project is all about.
"We will be looking at treatment techniques and how they are affecting the biochemistry involved in healing. We're also trying to determine what some of the biochemical markers are that will tell us the stage of a wound. That's important for treatment, and it is one of the focuses of one of the grants. Millions of dollars are spent each year for wound treatment, but right now there are no good ways to tell if they're working well, other than by the eye."
Although the process of wound healing is well-documented, the specific biomarkers associated with healing of chronic wounds are currently unknown. Moreover, the lack of a test or assay to help guide the clinical treatment of wounds presents a significant gap in wound care. Daemen's Natural and Health Sciences Research Center, with $925,000 in funding from the U.S. Department of Defense, obtained through the office of Representative Tom Reynolds (R), will focus on identifying the earliest stages of wound healing.
"The identification of biomarkers, which indicate initial stages of healing, is the first step in developing a standard evaluation of wounds to determine if a treatment is successful at the earliest time possible," noted Dr. Edsberg, principal investigator of this project. "This type of standard tool for evaluation of wounds is necessary and long overdue. This project is the first step leading to the formation of a standard for wound treatment evaluation and a better understanding of the healing of chronic wounds and, ultimately, fewer chronic wounds."
Daemen Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Edwin Clausen pointed out the
significance of wound therapy as a global issue.
"It is vital, not only because of the obvious importance of helping sufferers of this problem around the world, but also because it brings together a lot of good science. It introduces students to cutting-edge technology, plus gives them exposure to the health care processes in other countries - in Europe, and eventually, China, while exposing European and Chinese students to how we approach these issues in the United States.
"That exchange is what internationalization is all about in academia, and why Daemen is a staunch advocate of this form of practical, beyond-the-traditional classroom experience."
Dr. Brogan, who accompanied Dr. Clausen to China this past April to organize the Daemen initiative, added that sharing research will be a big part of the program there.
"Sichuan University is huge, by any standards - some 70,000 students. It's a research oriented institution, and, through a memorandum of understanding Daemen has signed with them, we plan to exchange wound therapy research, incorporating technical and scientific techniques. We are also planning student and faculty exchanges this fall."
Dr. Brogan said the goal of the wound treatment project is ultimately to cut time, patient suffering, and cost of care.
"We want to know what's going on inside, what happens when you apply a treatment. Infections are now much more resistant to anti-biotics - we've gone from one drug to two, sometimes three, necessary to kill an infection brought on by a wound. What if you could swab a wound, and determine, quickly and accurately from subsequent tests, the progress or likelihood of that wound healing? What will ultimately reduce the risk for infection? That's one of goals we're working toward.
"We will be conducting a truly collaborative research model. For a small College, Daemen has a lot of depth, bringing fields such as biomechanical engineering; biochemistry; microbiology; physics; and physical therapy to this project. We're very pleased to be an integral part of the health care community in Western New York, and we are excited about the possibilities of this research initiative."
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