Bioengineered skin to be tested in hospitals

CUTISS is a spin-off of the University of Zurich (UZH) whose aim is to bring bioengineered skin grafts to the market. Using a novel procedure, the company harvests a postage-stamp-sized biopsy of healthy skin from the patient, which is then bioengineered to create a skin graft some 70 times larger in size. The process takes around one month. 

The skin produced in the lab is elastic and grows with the patient. In contrast to conventional grafts, it is expected to result in less scarring and provide a significantly better quality of life for patients. The technology can help heal people with skin injuries, including burn victims.

As CUTISS announced in a statement, it has now received the green light from Swissmedic, the Swiss agency for the authorisation and supervision of therapeutic products, to commence Phase IIb trials with the skin graft to treat burn patients at the University Children’s Hospital Zurich, the University Hospital Zurich, as well as the Dutch Burn Center in the Netherlands and the University Hospital Birmingham in the UK.

“The aim of these Phase IIb Trials is to validate the efficacy of denovoSkin against standard of care in burns,” said Fabienne Hartmann, CTO at CUTISS.