In The News

Doctor who helped create synthetic skin passes away

Doctor who helped create synthetic skin passes away

THE death has taken place of Dr. John F. Burke who helped create synthetic skin which was used in saving the lives of innumerable burns victims across the world. He was 89.

Dr. Burke began his quest in 1969 when he was working as a trauma surgeon in Boston. What was to eventually prove the key factor in the process was his decision to seek the help of Dr. Ioannis V. Yannas (see below), a professor of fibres and polymers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

But the process to develop a skin which would not be rejected by the immune system of patients was to prove long and difficult. But after eleven years the team led by the two men had developed the first synthetic human skin which was capable of being reproduced commercially.

Their product, which was an amalgam of plastics, cow tissue and shark cartilage, was soon being used on burns victims and proving to be very successful.

Dr. Burke was to acknowledge later that he had realised very early on that the problem was not going to be solved by involving just one area of expertise during the research process. He said the project required two spheres of knowledge to be involved — the engineering of polymers and the biology of the skin.

A number of artificial skin materials are available to doctors today, but the product developed by Dr. Burke and Dr. Yannas is still widely used.

To see Professor Ioannis V. Yannas talk about synthetic skin click here.

 

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