Newswise — Think summer, and you may imagine barbecues, bonfires, bottle rockets, and biking. But activities that heat up summer fun also can bring risks, including severe burns and other forms of trauma.
Researchers supported by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences, part of the National Institutes of Health, have made remarkable advances in both the basic understanding and treatment of these injuries.
Examples include:
"¢ Advances in bioengineering and cell culturing techniques that allow scientists to grow replacement skin based on a patient's own tissues, offering more natural healing and less scarring"¢ Enhanced understanding of the highly complex, body-wide response to injury—even at the level of genes and proteins"¢ Development of standard procedures for treating severely burned and injured patients in emergency rooms"¢ Insight into the role of virtual reality programs in lessening a patient's response to pain.
More information about NIGMS-supported research on burns and trauma is available at http://www.nigms.nih.gov/Initiatives/Trauma/.
NIGMS (http://www.nigms.nih.gov/), a component of the National Institutes of Health, supports basic biomedical research that is the foundation for advances in disease diagnosis, treatment, and prevention.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)—The Nation's Medical Research Agency—includes 27 Institutes and Centers and is a component of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. It is the primary Federal agency for conducting and supporting basic, clinical, and translational medical research, and it investigates the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases. For more information about NIH and its programs, visit http://www.nih.gov.
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