22.5.2025
Doctoral thesis on Multifunctional Bioactive Hydrogel Microneedle Patches for Wound Healing
M.Sc. Lu Fan’s doctoral thesis in Drug Development will be put forth for public defence at the Faculty of Science and Engineering at Åbo Akademi University.
The thesis is entitled Multifunctional Bioactive Hydrogel Microneedle Patches for Wound Healing.
The public defence of the doctoral thesis takes place on 30 May 2025 at 1PM in auditorium Argentum, Aurum, Henrikinkatu 2, Turku. You can also follow the doctoral defence online. Senior Scientist Ciro Chiappini, King’s College London, United Kingdom, will serve as opponent and Professor Hongbo Zhang, Åbo Akademi University, as custos.
Summary
Wound healing consists of four overlapping yet critical stages: hemostasis, inflammation, proliferation, and remodeling. However, under pathological conditions such as diabetic ulcers and infected wounds, disruptions in the microenvironment and immune dysregulation can lead to delayed healing, tissue necrosis, and even amputation, posing a dramatic global health and economic burden. Currently, considerable wound dressings are available for wound treatment, but they fail to penetrate into deep subcutaneous damaged areas due to skin obstructions and scab formation, limiting their effectiveness in complex wounds.
Microneedles (MNs) have emerged as an effective drug delivery system because they can painlessly pierce the stratum corneum, reaching the epidermis or dermis to achieve efficient drug administration. However, traditional MNs made of metal and silicon are prone to causing inflammation, secondary medical injuries, and some of the delivered protein-based drugs may become inactive. Therefore, biocompatible MNs capable of maintaining the activity of bioactive agents need to be further developed.
Hydrogel microneedles (HMNs) have recently been recognized as a promising platform for wound treatment. Due to their high biocompatibility, hydrophilicity, and moisture retention, HMNs are well-suited for in vivo applications, minimizing immune responses and inflammation even over prolonged application. In addition, they can maintain the activity of loaded therapeutic bioactive factors or cells, including stem cells, exosomes, growth factors, antimicrobial peptides, etc. Various of these bioactive substances have been proven beneficial for wound healing, targeting different phases of tissue repair. Moreover, the structure of HMNs can mimic the extracellular matrix environment, offering an optimal microenvironment for the survival of delivered stem cells, and for other bioactive factors to promote tissue regeneration. In this thesis, four HMNs with distinctive structures were developed, each was loaded with therapeutic bioactive components, to achieve multifunctional wound healing.
Lu Fan can be reached by email lu.fan@abo.fi.
The doctoral thesis can be read online through the Doria publication archive.
No picture available.
Instructions for following the doctoral defence remotely:
To follow the defence, you need the Zoom software or the Google Chrome browser. You do not need to create a Zoom account to follow the defence. If you install the application, you participate by clicking on the meeting link, after which you should allow the link to open in the Zoom app.