What Did Fiona Wood Discover?

Dr. Fiona Wood is a plastic surgeon in Perth, Australia, who invented and successfully used her creation of spray-on skin to aid burn victims of the 2002 Bali terrorist attack.

History

• Dr. Wood received her medical degree in London, England, before moving to Perth, Australia, to pursue plastic surgery. In 2005 she was honored with the Australian of the Year award for her development of spray-on skin through her company Clinical Cell Culture Ltd.

Features

• Spray-on skin is produced by doctors in a laboratory. In this procedure they use a sample of healthy skin from a burn patient to grow a multitude of new skin cells that can be sprayed onto a burned area of the body or on top of a skin graft using an aerosol spray delivery system.

Function

• Dr. Wood has been using this pioneering technique of spray-on skin since 1995; she employed this new method to save the lives of many of the burn victims of the Bali bombings. Her technique garnered national attention after this devastating world event and is considered a great advancement in skin transplant technology.

Significance

• The spray-on skin that was created by Dr. Wood has helped many burn victims by reducing the amount of time required to grow healthy skin cells for transplant. In addition, this method also significantly decreases the chances of a burn patient developing scarring, rendering them with more mobility once healed.