'Bandage' spray to treat wounds

Electrosols, based at the Magdalen Centre, Oxford Science Park, uses electric fields to weave a web of microscopically small particles that biodegrade as the wound heals.

Chairman Ron Coffee, a visiting Fellow at Green College, Oxford, said: "These fibres are finer than a spider's web; they form a three-dimensional scaffolding for the damaged tissue to repair itself, reducing scarring."

The particles settle on the skin almost instantly, forming a new layer of fibres. The treatment could include anti-infective compounds, tissue repair agents to reduce scarring, and the patient's own skin cells to promote healthy new skin growth.

The 'web' can biodegrade at a pre-determined time once healing is complete.

Dr Coffee said: "It's a new breath of hope to people with severely damaged skin."

He founded the company after leaving chemical company ICI - now Zeneca - with eight patents. One was for his invention of a more efficient pesticide-spraying technique called Electrodyne, which produced evenly-distributed particles, all of the same size.

A working model of Electrodyne has been on permanent display at the Science Museum, London, for ten years.

Since then Electrosols has patented another dozen inventions, all based upon new ways of using electric fields.

He said: "ICI had mixed feelings about marketing something which would need only ten per cent of the pesticide used normally. It's very powerful science, with applications in many different fields."

One example is inhalers for diseases such as asthma. US research and technology institute Battelle is developing an Electrosols device to spray droplets into the lung, which could treat lung diseases or deliver new genes to cystic fibrosis patients. It was successfully tried on asthma sufferers at the Churchill Hospital, Oxford.

Story date: Tuesday 28 December

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