Scientists regrow skin that’s burnt

13.06.2017

A small US biotech has successfully regenerated skin and stimulated hair growth in pigs with burns and abrasions, paving the way for a scientific breakthrough that could lead to the regeneration of fully functional human skin.

Salt Lake City-based PolarityTE Inc’s patented approach to tissue engineering is designed to use a patient’s own healthy tissue to re-grow human skin for the treatment of burns and wounds. Despite recent advances in reconstructive surgery, plastic surgeons cannot give burn victims what they require the most — their skin.

Current approaches to treat serious burns are “severely limited” in their effectiveness and in some cases, are rather expensive, PolarityTE’s founder and CEO Denver Lough said.

PolarityTE conducted its study on wounded pigs at an animal facility in Utah. The use of therapy resulted in scar-less healing, growth of hair follicles, complete wound coverage and the progressive regeneration of all skin layers, the company said. As pig skin is more complex and robust than human skin, successful swine data is seen as a precursor to effectiveness in human trials.

PolarityTE expects to begin a human trial later this year and the cell therapy could hit the market 12 to 18 months thereafter, said Lough, who served as senior plastic surgery resident at Johns Hopkins Hospital before creating the firm.

State govt. hikes job quota for differently abled to 4%

Decision follows notification of Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act by Centre

The Tamil Nadu government has increased the reservation for differently abled persons in government vacancies to 4% from the existing 3%, in line with the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, Chief Minister Edappadi K. Palaniswami announced here on Tuesday.

The 4% reservation for differently abled would apply to all State public service enterprises, public sector undertakings, boards, corporations, educational institutions, local bodies, and government-aided institutions across the State, Mr. Palaniswami said.

As per Section 34 (1) of the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, every government shall appoint in every government establishment, not less than 4% of the total number of vacancies in the cadre strength in each group of posts meant to be filled with persons with benchmark disabilities.

While blindness and low vision, deaf and hard of hearing categories would have 1% of reservation in each of the categories, locomotor disability, including cerebral palsy, leprosy cured, dwarfism, acid attack victims and muscular dystrophy would have 1% reservation.

Autism, intellectual disability, specific learning disability, mental illness and multiple disabilities would have 1% reservation, says a G.O.

The State government’s decision follows the proposal sent by the State Commissioner for the Differently-Abled to increase the reservation for the category after the Centre notified the Rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016, in April this year.

‘Clear backlogs’

Hailing the move, former Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss urged the government to clear the backlog of vacancies [under the quota system] soon.

S. Namburajan, State Secretary of Tamil Nadu Association for the Rights of All Types of Differently-Abled and Caregivers (TARATDAC), has welcomed the State government’s announcement.