For 18 months, a team from the laboratory of the French group Urgo has been working on the creation of an artificial skin, to allow the healing of the wounds of severe burns, without going through the many and painful skin grafts that they must undergo today. .

This is the "Genesis" project, in Chenôve (Côte-d'Or).

Many health players, public and private, including an AFM-Téléthon laboratory, are taking part in this 100 million euro project.

With the aim of completing it in 2030.

The technological step to be taken is high.

"You have to be able to recreate all the functions of the skin", including protection against external threats or thermoregulation, explains Guirec Le Lous, president of the medical branch of Urgo, a family business created in 1880.

A technician manipulates living cells kept cold as part of the Urgo laboratory's Genesis project, December 16, 2022 in Chenôve, Côte d'Or © ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP

In the laboratory, living cells are kept cold before being cultured.

"Are we able to design an artificial skin in the laboratory? No one in the world today has succeeded", underlines the leader, without revealing anything about the technology used or the type of cells used.

It is also necessary to take into account the industrial aspect, because this skin must be "available for all and therefore at the right price", he adds.

It's a "crazy" project, he says.

Urgo has a long experience with chronic wounds, for example for diabetic feet or leg ulcers.

Guirec Le Lous, president of the medical branch of Urgo, on December 16, 2022 in Chenôve, in the Côte d'Or © ARNAUD FINISTER / AFP

And "since the 2000s, we have worked on materials that will correct healing defects: the dressing has become intelligent, interactive with the wound, which allows it to be effective", says Laurent Apert, research director for Urgo, evoking "a revolution".

"The day and the night"

A revolution carried out in the research laboratories of several companies.

Thus, the start-up VistaCare Medical, in Besançon (Doubs), launched in 2015, with a device that looks like a mini box placed around the lower limb, without contact with the wound.

Healing goes through several phases: humidity, temperature, and everything is important in this process.

"There is no more dressing. The idea is to put the wound in an enclosure, in a sterile air", explains the founder, François Dufaÿ.

"With this system, we provide the wound with what it needs, at the right time".

A technician works on the creation of an artificial skin as part of the Genesis project of the Urgo laboratory, on December 16, 2022 in Chenôve, in the Côte d'Or © ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP

Today, its solution equips around twenty hospitals.

The entrepreneur intends to file an authorization request in the United States in 2023, for a device which this time would be used at home.

Healing, long neglected in research, is of increasing interest also abroad.

The University of South Australia, for example, has developed a technology for burns in children: these are dressings containing silver nanoparticles, sensitive in particular to temperature changes, which limit the risk of wound infection. .

A technician works on the creation of an artificial skin as part of the Genesis project of the Urgo laboratory, on December 16, 2022 in Chenôve, in the Côte d'Or © ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP

In Paris, Isabelle Fromantin, in charge of the wounds and healing research unit at the Institut Curie, worked with her team on an anti-odor dressing for necrotic wounds in certain cancers.

"Compared to 20 years ago, it's night and day in terms of wound care," she notes.

A technician shows a type of severe wound that could be treated with artificial skin, as part of the Urgo laboratory's Genesis project, on December 16, 2022 in Chenôve, Côte d'Or © ARNAUD FINISTRE / AFP

But technologies cannot do everything.

“Believing that a bandage will allow healing on its own is a utopia,” says the researcher.

Because the process varies from person to person, depending on age and state of health.

© 2022 AFP