Investigating the cell biology of wound inflammation and its consequences

An effective inflammatory response after tissue damage is critical to prevent infection and help repair the wound. However, there are also negative consequences of wound inflammation including fibrotic scarring, and when inflammation is over exuberant it can lead to chronic wound healing and other pathologies. We will analyse how inflammatory cells respond to wound signals, and once they arrive at the wound, how they instruct other cell types at the wound, including blood vessel cells, fat cells, pigment cells and cells that make scars, to do both beneficial and damaging things at the wound site. We will use a combination of fruitfly pupae and zebrafish (which are both translucent and so let us watch these events in real time down the microscope) studies to model wound inflammation and to determine the molecular basis of these conversations between cells and how to change them to improve the repair process.