Public Health Research

Chronic wounds

Chronic leg ulcers are a major public health burden associated with high direct health care costs and substantial negative impact on the quality of life of patients and carers. Despite recent advances in wound care many ulcers still fail to heal.

Associate Professor Jackson's team were the first to prove that activated protein C (APC), a naturally occurring anti-clotting agent, promotes cutaneous wound healing. In addition they have resolved the mechanisms underlying APC's actions in wound healing and completed a small open labelled pilot clinical trial on patients suffering chronic wounds using a topical APC. This trial has showed positive results with all patients either completely healing or showing significant improvement in healing. The team is currently completing additional trials to further evaluate APC over the next 30 months.