Building a new future of injure monitoring

Efficient, reliable and non-invasive biosensing bandages

At WOUNDSENS, we are determined to change the narrative around chronic nonhealing wound care. We are working on three innovative strategies that will transform the way we design and manufacture smart wound dressings.

Simplifying manufacture

We aim to develop a one-step sensing element manufacture for wearable wound dressings, integrating sensor elements into the material to enhance wearing comfort and operability, and enable easy implementation into existing standard manufacturing processes.

Increasing sensitivity

Traditional methods of coating sensors on flat surfaces often result in the loss of important information. By developing a porous fiber-electrode combination that ensures comprehensive bio-catalytical signal conversion across the entire wound dressing surface, our sensors will show high sensitivity, enabling early detection of infections.

Ensuring versatility

Every wound is unique, so solutions should be tailored accordingly. The project’s approach utilizes versatile hollow fibers to adjust the wound’s micro-environment, allowing to control factors such as pH levels and solute concentrations to contain different biocatalysts. This adaptability ensures that the smart wound dressings can cater to a wide range of wound care needs.

An answer to a silent epidemic

The real cost of chronic wounds

Approximately 1 in 50 people worldwide are affected by chronic nonhealing wounds (CNHW). These injuries not only cause immense pain and suffering for individuals, but they also impose significant costs on society, impacting the overall well-being of patients. Current inspecting methods for underlying infections are often invasive, expensive, and unreliable, sometimes even increasing the risk of further health complications.

Despite extensive research efforts, we are yet to see the development of smart bandages or dressings that can effectively detect and monitor infections in the early stages. Additionally, in order to reach the clinic, the technology must be integrated into existing wound dressing manufacturing processes, an additional challenge that slows down progress in this field.

The WOUNDSENS approach

Interconnecting innovation in three cutting-edge areas

Enzyme Engineering Module
Led by EvoEnzyme

This module is dedicated to adapt enzymes to the highly demanding manufacturing process and operational conditions of the biosensor. Our approach is harnessing advanced wet-lab and computational protein engineering methods, including directed evolution and ancestral resurrection, to tailor highly active and stable oxidoreductase enzymes with superior performance.

Through close collaboration and an interdisciplinary approach, WOUNDSENS aims to deliver a wearable biosensor that provides continuous, robust, and sensitive electrochemical detection on the wound’s microenvironment.

Conductive Material Module
Led by Université de Lorraine

This module aims to unlock the potential of carbon-based materials, particularly graphene, which have demonstrated promising applications in the fields of energy and environment. Université de Lorraine will focus on developing forefront processes to obtain high-quality conductive materials that fulfill the specific requirements of electrospinning. These requirements include precise particle dimensions and optimal electrical and catalytic properties to ensure exceptional conductivity and durability in various environments.

Electrospinning Module
Led by the NMI Natural and Medical Sciences Institute

Specializing in electrospinning, NMI excels in the precise fabrication of nanofibers from various materials. In this module, we harness the power of electrospinning to create hollow fibers as the fundamental building blocks of our biosensor. Electrospinning offers numerous advantages, including the entrapment of enzymes, fine-tuning of enzyme activity within the fibers, increased surface area, and integration of conductive materials for electrochemical detection. NMI will optimize the electrospinning process, ensuring the production of biocompatible, permeable fibers that allow for the analysis of wound analytes while maintaining enzyme integrity.

Our workplan

WOUNDSENS´ work plan is divided into 6 highly interactive work packages (WP):

WP1

The overall project is governed by WP1: Project Management, whose aim is to define the project management methodologies for its effective implementation.

WP2
The aim of the WP2 is to define and study the required sensor characteristics and measures for realization.
WP3
The WP3 will focus on the ENZYME ENGINEERING MODULE with the engineering and production of novel oxidoreductases with optimal performance on the electrospun fiber materials.
WP4
The WP4 focuses on the elaboration and characterization of carbon materials and subsequent dispersions as part of the CONDUCTIVE MATERIAL MODULE.
WP5
Tasks from the WP5 will establish a stable coaxial electrospinning process for the fabrication of core-shell fibers with the developments of the ELECTROSPINNING MODULE.
WP6
Work will aim to the assembly of sensors, composed of enzyme loaded conducting fibers and accessory materials and connection to sampling- and electronic read-out equipment, a wound model prototype for measurements.
WP7
The WP7 aims to the dissemination to a wider audience, communication and interaction with other initiatives. It will also be considered the definition of the exploitation of project´s results.
WP8
Strengthen the prospects for successful project completion and performing the initial steps of transition towards market by developing synergies and collaborations among the projects funded under the 2022 EIC Pathfinder Challenge call – Towards the healthcare continuum: technologies to support a radical shift from episodic to continuous healthcare (HORIZON-EIC-2022-PATHFINDERCHALLENGES-01-04), steered by the Programme Manager in charge of the portfolio of projects generated by the call.
WP9

The objective is to ensure compliance with the ‘ethics requirements’ set out in this WP.

WOUNDSENS will overcome diverse barriers for continuous wound care monitoring, since current methods of wound infection diagnosis involves traumatic bandage removal, take samples by invasive techniques or long times in microbiological analysis.

WOUNDSENS aims for a new approach towards noninvasive, long-term stable, and capable of in situ surveillance of wound biomarkers, facilitating compliance of patients to wound care continuum. WOUNDSENS will allow to set up alternatives on site visits including use of telemedicine and creation of videos to help with wound dressing changes among others and encouraging a do-it-yourself wound dressing protocol and use of homemade substitutions.

Are you interested in the WOUNDSENS project?

If you feel connected to the project in any way, whether you are a clinical professional, patient, researcher, or work in industry manufacturing medical technology, please, do not hesitate to contact us for any question, idea or proposal about WOUNDSENS and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
Let’s start a discussion through this email:
info@woundsensproject.eu