From a postage stamp of donated foreskin screened for viruses, immature epidermal and dermal cells are harvested, multiplied 1,000-fold, cryopreserved, and applied to the top and bottom of a bovine collagen matrix. Without sutures or staples, CCS is placed on the wound site. Gradually, CCS stimulates the body's own skin to regenerate. Since CCS is quickly replaced by the body's own skin, there has been no sign of rejection. EB patients and burn victims alike face long, painful, and costly treatments.
Healthy skin is grafted from elsewhere on their bodies, causing pain and additional scarring.
In cases of severe burns where the patient's own skin doesn't suffice, cadaver skin is sometimes used to seal the wounds, but cadaver skin may be in short supply, may fail to take hold, or may harbor viruses. CCS is now in clinical trials at burn units like New York Hospital-Cornell Medical Center and in trials for patients with EB or diabetic ulcers. The good news is that discoveries like those of Columbia molecular biologist Dr. Paul B. Fisher are bringing us closer to treatments more specific and less toxic than traditional chemotherapy and radiation. GenQuest, a firm founded by Fisher, has a novel approach to ferreting out genes that may one day prove useful in the early diagnosis and treatment of melanomas and breast, prostate, and other cancers. Those genes could lead to biotherapies with fewer side effects, such as monoclonal antibodies, gene therapy, or vaccines against cancer cells.