Scaffolding for skin

A scaffolding technology that could help scientists grow tissue such as skin in labs is being developed by researchers at Bristol University.

The team are using proteins from alpha helices to create 3D ‘spaghetti’ scaffolding to support the growth of nerves, blood vessels and cartilage.

By building the hydrogelating self assembling fibres (hSAFs), or hydrogels, from scratch, the researchers hope to tailor the scaffolds to suit individual patient needs.

Project leader, Prof Dek Woolfson, said: ‘To make hydrogels you need something long and thin that will interact with copies of itself and form meshes, but is also water soluble.

‘However, rather than using natural proteins, which are complex, we've tried to make something as simple as possible that we fully understand, using peptides and self-assembling proteins.’