Army, industry partner to test burn treatment.

• Author: Versprill, Allyson
• Position: Global Defense - Medical condition overview

* Biotechnology company Amarantus BioScience Holdings is partnering with the U.S. Army to advance clinical testing for a product to treat severe burns.

The company announced in August that it had signed a cooperative research-and-development agreement with the Army Institute of Surgical Research and Rutgers University to expand development of its skin replacement product--known as engineered skin substitute (ESS)--for victims with deep partial and full-thickness burns.

"It's important for the military to get access to a product like this because the military is putting its soldiers in harm's way," said Gerald Commissiong, president and CEO of Amarantus. The Army has indicated that this is a top priority for them, he added.

In the long term the company wants to make ESS available for victims following large-scale disasters, he said, pointing to recent chemical explosions in China that killed more than 120 people and injured over 700.

"That is also quite important from a national security perspective," Commissiong said. The biomedical advanced research and development authority within the Department of Health and Human Services is "highly interested in a terrorist preparedness plan" to assist in the event of a mass incident where burn victims would need to be treated, he said.

Unlike current procedures, ESS uses a patient's own skin to replace areas affected by a burn, Commissiong said. A small biopsy of the victim's skin is obtained and sent to a lab where the cells are combined with fibroblasts--which secrete important structural proteins--fed onto a matrix and then cultured in vitro before being placed back on the...