Edited release
05/09/24
University of Iowa researchers have developed a foam that can be directly applied to skin wounds and has shown to improve healing of diabetic wounds and pressure ulcers in animal models.
According to a release from UI Health Care, UI assistant professor of radiation oncology and biomedical engineering Dr James Byrne is working with colleagues at Harvard Medical School and MIT. He says gases like carbon monoxide have therapeutic properties if delivered in the right concentration.
The team has developed gas-entrapping materials, which can be transformed into foams, gels or even solids, to allow those gases to be used in a safe, prolonged fashion directly to the site where the therapy is needed.
The team eventually hopes to start a new company around the technology. In addition to wound-healing, the researchers are also exploring the use of gas-entrapping materials in various cancer therapies.
More details on the research can be found at medicine.uiowa.edu.