Gene Therapy For Genetic Skin Disease Using Epidermal Stem Cells

For the first time in skin transplantation, a large surface area of damaged skin was transplanted with transgenic skin derived from genetically modified epidermal stem cells from the patient. The gene therapy was used to treat a seven year old boy suffering from extensive skin damage due to a genetic condition called epidermolysis bullosa. The procedure was performed by teams at the Ruhr-Universität Bochum''s burn unit and the Center for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Modena (Italy) and published in Nature.