Health impacts

A common theme across all Materials for Health research activities within AMBER is the development of materials which improve outcomes for patients with debilitating conditions including osteoarthritis, peripheral arterial disease and nerve injury. The collaborative programme on peripheral nerve regeneration with Integra Life Sciences has demonstrated that the regenerative capacity of an existing product can be enhanced by the inclusion of additional extracellular matrix components and this, in combination with a collagen-based nerve guidance conduit, can promote nerve regeneration across a large defects. This breakthrough has the potential to improve functional recovery after injury including long nerve defects for which there is no commercially available treatment. In the United States over twenty million people suffer from peripheral nerve injury, which can cause loss of motor function, sensory function, or both.

We have established a Patient and Public Involvement/Engagement (PPI/E) initiative as a component of our IRFU Charitable Trust/AMBER Spinal Cord Repair Project. The panel comprises injured rugby players, clinicians, and PPI/E facilitators with the remit of programme oversight and as well as providing insight into the clinical and patient considerations and implications with the scientists working on the project. This type of PPI work is relatively new to preclinical research and has generated significant interest within the international research community as evidenced by the success in winning the Spinal Cord Institute research-writing prize and the feature in their ‘In Conversation’ series.