The Burn Injury Research Unit covers all aspects of burn injury, from improving injury assessment through the use of novel technologies, to advanced wound biomaterials, understanding the biology of scar formation and rehabilitation after injury
A primary research focus is the response and integration of the bone marrow, nervous system and immune response to burn injury and how this impacts on the outcome. We are particularly interested in these systemic responses and how they influence healing, and have evidence now for cortical plasticity after burn injury, bone marrow responses affecting scar formation and systemic changes in peripheral nerves potentially caused by an immune mediator. Whilst most research on burn injury has, understandably, focused on topical intervention and the site of injury, a key aspect of our research is the hypothesis that these systemic responses are key to changing the healing process and improving the patient outcome. This has so far been borne out by our data showing long-term changes in these systems in response to burn injury that appear never to return to pre-injury states.