Welsh Government backs healing technology

16 Sep 11
A test being developed by Cardiff scientists could save the NHS tens of millions of pounds annually in the costs of wound treatments, the Welsh Government has said.
By Mark Smulian | 19 September 2011

A test being developed by Cardiff scientists could save the NHS tens of millions of pounds annually in the costs of wound treatments, the Welsh Government has said. Bandaging

Final stages of the research will be supported by a £150,000 grant from the Welsh Government’s Academic Expertise for Business programme to validate the technology involved.

The programme is backed by European Structural Funds to provide gap funding between early research and the start of the market exploitation of research and development in Welsh universities.

Gene signatures would be used in the test to predict whether chronic wounds – such as ulcers – will respond to conventional treatment or whether more medically complex solutions are needed.

Management of chronic wounds in Wales costs some £180m a year, and across the UK there are 200,000 new cases each year.

Some patients heal within a reasonable time, but others take a lot longer and there has not been a reliable way to predict how wounds will respond to treatment. This has led to waste as conventional treatments are tried repeatedly to little effect.

Professors Keith Harding and Wen Jiang of Cardiff University’s School of Medicine plan to set up a company to commercialise the test once validation is complete next year.

Edwina Hart, minister for business, enterprise, technology and science, said: ‘Life sciences is one of the key sectors of the Welsh economy with high growth potential and I am pleased A4B is supporting the next stage of this ground-breaking research. Spacer

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