Clue for skin cure

Victims of the hereditary skin disease Epidermolysis Bullosa Simplex (EBS) have been given new hope after researchers at the University recently made a discovery that could lead to treatments for their condition.

EBS is an incurable disease which causes the skin to blister at even the slightest friction. It is one of a group of hereditary skin disorders which affects around 5,000 people in the UK.

A University team, led by Professor Irwin McLean, is currently researching skin disorders and is at the forefront of international research in this field. Irwin took cells from an EBS patient to grow in culture in order to test some of their gene therapies. To his surprise he found that many of the cells he expected to be damaged were in fact normal.

Irwin explains, "We found that a high percentage of the patient's cells had corrected themselves. We all have two copies of the EBS gene and in those with the disorder one of the genes has a defect and the other is normal. The defective one overrides the normal one and if we can switch it off the normal one can do its job properly. We need to be able to switch off the defective gene and we now have a means of doing that in the lab. We are now at the stage of testing it in cells and then ultimately on patients."

As well as helping sufferers of EBS, these discoveries could also be used to help thousands of victims of more common skin disorders such as psoriasis and skin cancer.