Beyond the searing pain of burns, permanent scarring of the skin has a devastating lifelong impact on quality of life. Imagine reaching up for the top shelf and having a sharp pain surge down your arm and back. Unfortunately this is the reality for millions of burn victims where skin does not heal with the same elasticity as it’s natural form, instead tightened to the point where stretching can cause intense pain.
Having benefited the lives of countless patients as the pioneer of spray-on-skin and a world-leading esteemed expert in burns, Professor Fiona Wood has been alongside many victims through their recovery journeys. Seeing this tightening of the healed skin and its ongoing mental impact on patients, she has made it her mission to reverse the impacts of burns, essentially to ‘un-scar the scar’.
Her tireless dedication to advancing burn care earned her international acclaim and recognition.
In 2023, Professor Wood led clinical trials conducted at the University of Western Australia, identifying a drug developed by biotech company Syntara (ASX: SNT) as one that could reinvigorate elasticity of the skin in scar tissue.
Syntara’s pan LOX (lysyl oxidase) inhibitors caught her attention, with potential to inhibit the enzymes that create scar tissue. Research was put into clinical trials in 2023 with 42 patients volunteering to apply the topical cream to their scars in a 3-month study.
The results were highly encouraging, showing 66% reduction in LOX enzyme activity which is responsible for the cross linking of collagen fibres implicated in adverse scarring. Collagen was reduced by 30%, a result Professor Wood described as “an unprecedented change to the scar composition that we have not seen with any other form of treatment.”
Fully Funded ,, I Believe 80% recruitment is Completed , Trial Results to be presented in the United States in December....NZT $$$
