CRC Wound
Two key gaps in wound management research; diagnostics and the role of microbial biofilms have been identified. The research in this program aims to improve the understanding of how various genes, proteins, peptides, microorganisms and metabolites are involved in tissue repair and change, and how they influence wound healing and recurrence. This research leads to the development of rapid and accurate point-of-care diagnostic tools and novel therapeutics.
| Project Name | Biochemical Profiling of Chronic Wound Fluid |
| Project Leader | Professor Zee Upton, Queensland University of Technology |
| Participants |
Queensland University of Technology, University of Queensland (QFAB), Smith & Nephew, Tissue Therapies |
Summary
There is currently a lack of fundamental knowledge on the biological processes associated with wound healing. This project aims to profile the dynamic changes in wound environment through the use of state-of-the art proteomic and metabolic analyses across sequential wound fluid samples. This will enable the generation of a database that can be used to link molecular changes in the wound with physical clinical parameters. This will therefore facilitate the development of biochemical based diagnostic or prognostic tools for use in wound management and may be useful in identifying novel therapeutic strategies for treating chronic wounds. New bioinformatics tools and programs to aid biomarker discovery will be co-developed.
This project will principally involve wound fluid sample collection, workflow optimisation, initial biochemical/metabolic profiling leading to initial generation of data, along with development of bioinformatics tools to assist with data mining.
Planned Outcomes
By addressing the key research gaps relating to the role of proteins and metabolites in the wound healing process, molecular indicators of the healing status of a wound can be identified. These indicators or biomarkers will underpin the development of new wound diagnostics and therapies, resulting in:
- More informed clinical decision making and more targeted treatments.
- Improved clinical and quality of life outcomes for patients.
- Savings in wound related expenditure due to better informed clinical care and hence improved healing rates.
- The generation of new IP opportunities that will increase Australia’s share of the rapidly-growing advanced wound care market.
- The training of students and post-doctoral research fellows in advanced biochemical profiling and validation techniques, modern systems biology approaches, advanced data mining techniques and state-of-the-art data integration methodologies, to understand the molecular biology of wound healing.
- Custom algorithms developed to simultaneously analyse proteomics and metabolomics profiles and clinical data will be accessible in the form of user friendly workflows to help CRC researchers analysing complex and heterogeneous data.
