Bronwyn Dearman

As a Medical Scientist in the tissue engineering field, Dr Bronwyn Dearman was instrumental in providing a clinical service of epidermal cells for severely burn-injured adults (and children at the Adelaide Women and Children's Hospital). However, the limitations of this service were obvious with enormous burn injuries where skin grafts were simply not available due to a lack of unburned donor sites, thus she assisted with the development of the 'Two-Stage' Burn Treatment Strategy. The first stage required the creation of a novel dermal template, the Biodegradable Temporising Matrix (BTM). This product is currently used worldwide in burn treatment, and its use in the management of other wound aetiologies is rapidly expanding. The second stage (which takes many weeks of processing and necessitated the first stage), required the development of a bioengineered 'skin' utilising the same novel biodegradable polyurethane found in BTM. The Composite Cultured Skin (CCS), and a bespoke bioreactor system in which several large pieces of CCS can be grown simultaneously, form the backbone of Dr Dearman's ongoing research.

These innovative future technologies are destined to be part of the next global paradigm shift for burns and other chronic wound treatments. This translational research was taken from 'bench to bedside' to treat a patient with deep burns to 95% of his body surface area. He not only survived but lives independently and drives a modified motor vehicle in the community. The two-stage strategy, BTM and CCS, were used serially for this patient who, without its availability, would not have lived.

During her PhD candidature, Dr Dearman collaborated with Professor Steven Boyce, an internationally acknowledged expert in the field of Tissue Engineering with long experience and extensive knowledge of producing engineered skins. The potential of a combination dermal substitute (a hybrid) was formulated and researched to assist with the inherent collagen contraction and polymer pore size to fabricate a skin substitute for extensive full-thickness burn wounds.

Much research is still necessary to achieve a native skin substitute that includes adnexal structures (hair, sweat and sebaceous glands) and pigmentation – these are the next milestone steps planned to strive toward producing an aesthetic and fully-functional skin replacement.