Developing a treatment for EB using tissue engineering

• Primary Researcher: Prof Dimitrios Zevgolis
• Institution: University College Dublin
• Type of EB: DEB
• Funding amount: €20,000, with support from the University of Alberta
• Project length: 6 months

Due in 2024

Prof Dimitrios Zevgolis is the Director of the Regenerative, Modular & Developmental Engineering Laboratory (REMODEL) at University College Dublin (UCD), Dublin, Ireland. Dimitrios is Irish Ambassador of European Orthopaedic Research Society (EORS); member of the Endorsement and Editorial Committees of Tissue Engineering and Regenerative Medicine International Society (TERMIS); founder and council member of Matrix Biology Ireland (MBI); and Editor-in-Chief of Biomaterials and Biosystems (Elsevier).

He has authored over 100 peer-reviewed articles, over 400 peer-reviewed conference papers and over 15 peer-reviewed book chapters. He is on the editorial board of over 10 journals and acts as reviewer for over 130 journals and 30 funding agencies.

Dimitrios has secured 2 patents and founded 2 companies. He has conducted research for over 40 companies and has been involved in the development and commercialisation of numerous food and medical device products. He now hopes to apply his tissue engineering research expertise in the hopes of finding an effective treatment for DEB.

Grant title: Epidermolysis bullosa: Development of advanced biomimetic living
equivalents (EB-DOABLE)

Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) is a rare genetic and incurable disease that is associated with severe and painful skin and mucosae fragility, which results in blisters and erosions. It is estimated that 1 per 50,000 live births are diagnosed with EB and that 1 per 100,000 people have the disease. Its severity ranges from mild to fatal and affects every racial and ethnic group worldwide and both sexes equally. The market size of EB in seven (USA, UK, Germany, France, Italy, Spain, Japan) major markets is estimated at US$ 2,283.40 million per year, with compound annual growth rate of 5.67 %. Although cell-based tissue engineering therapies have shown remarkable clinical safety, efficiency and efficacy, no product has been commercialised (they are at various stages of clinical trial assessment).

We have a model of the skin environment in the lab that we want to apply to EB skin. The model is made up of skin cells that are packed really tightly together with other molecules that are found in the skin. The reason for packing the cells and molecules really tightly together is to ensure they behave the same way as when they are packed together in the skin and the molecules can find each other and react the same way they would in the skin. This is called macromolecular crowding. We are going to assess the potential of this model to create functional collagen 7. If it works, it can potentially be applied to DEB wounds to heal them. This type of model makes it faster and cheaper to make commercially because the macromolecular crowding allows for the skin model to develop faster and reduced the manufacturing time compared to other skin models.

If this works for collagen 7 and DEB the same technology can potentially be applied to other types of EB. EB-DOABLE is a collaborative project between the University College Dublin and the University of Alberta.

Due in 2024