Public Funding for Nn Scientific Limited

The project is based around developing a novel wound management dressing to combat biofilm formation and promote wound healing, allowing chronic wounds to be addressed more effectively and increasing the wound healing success rate. Biofilms are a major problem in chronic wounds and the reasons that these infections evade antibiotics and host defences are many, including antibiotic-insensitive physiological states of a proportion of the bacterial cells in a biofilm, and exclusion of host immune cells by the biofilm matrix produced by the bacteria. This makes the wound non treatable and prolonging the healing process, leading to the wound not healing and causing significant disruption to the life of the effected individual and incurring huge medical costs and lost productivity. The dressing will be made of jellyfish collagen, with a novel compound which has proven efficacy in biofilm disruption and in reducing pathogen virulence, allowing the pathogenic bacteria to be destroyed.

NN Scientific Limited is a privately owned contract Research and Development Company dedicated to supporting the pharmaceutical and medical diagnostic industries. One of the areas of expertise of the organisation lies in resolving analytical chemistry issues in the pre-development space. The current Innovation Voucher will contribute to development of a novel diagnostic approach in this space, for ultimate use in the management of women's health.