2nd Annual State Conference

Working Towards Stronger Skin

Monday 30th November 2009
Goodwood Community Centre
32-34 Rosa St Goodwood
1.30 pm-5pm

Professor Dédée Murrell 
Fibroblast based cell therapy and
clinical advances in EB

Prof. Murrell is Head of Dermatology, St George Hospital, University of New South Wales, Kogarah, Sydney. She is also consultant dermatologist for Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) at Sydney Children's Hospital.

Her special interest is blistering diseases, both autoimmune and inherited. Prof. Murrell is a world recognised expert in EB and a  founder of the EB diagnostic laboratory in Sydney. She leads a research laboratory focused on EB pathogenesis and treatment and is conducting clinical trials on EB
in Australia.

Michael Fitzpatrick
DEBRA-Australia: Past, Present, Future ... a father's journey

Michael Fitzpatrick is a dedicated supporter and advocate for DEBRA-Australia.
He is President of DEBRA-Australia and has contributed significantly towards DEBRA-Australia becoming recognised as a charitable organisation.

Michael is a parent of a child who lives with EB daily and his involvement with DEBRA-Australia has raised much needed funds and community awareness to support children suffering from EB in Australia.

Working towards stronger skin—
a research report

Zlatko Kopecki is engaged in EB research at the Women’s & Children’s Hospital, Adelaide and will report on his overseas travel to two international conferences and his work in a laboratory in Germany during August-November 2009.

Epidermolysis Bullosa is a genetic skin condition affecting 1:17,000 live births. Wound healing of patients suffering from EB poses a major challenge to their survival, with various degrees of recurrent skin blistering and epidermal detachment from the basement membrane.

The aim of our conference is to bring together patients, carers, nurses, clinicians, researchers and interested members of the community in SA to provide an opportunity for people to share their knowledge and experience of EB, treatment options, current research initiatives and show support to patients and families with EB. We believe that this event will aid in increasing public awareness while future research focused on development of new therapies may lead to improved quality of life for patients who live daily with EB.

Zlatko Travels

DEBRA (SA) is pleased to contribute towards Zlatko's travel costs to Europe for a study tour from mid- August to mid-November 2009. A summary of his travel plans follows:

Conference Attendance and Research EB Laboratory Visit

In August I am travelling to Europe to attend two conferences that will allow me to establish stronger collaboration links with other experts in the field of EB and collect some valuable data and samples for analysis from our collaborators in Germany. This collaboration will ultimately result in journal publications in Australia and overseas. The conferences will offer me invaluable opportunity to present my findings to the interested scientists whose work is relevant to my field – the knowledge and experience that they will bring will allow for critical and meaningful dialogue about my own research. I am hoping this may lead to new collaborations and enhanced project development.

Conference #1: Joint Meeting of The European Tissue Repair Society & Wound Healing Society: this is the gathering of the American Wound Healing Society, European Tissue Repair Society, Japanese Society for Wound Healing and Australian Wound Management Associations which takes place every four years. Hence this is the only chance during my PhD studies to attend such a prestigious meeting of world experts in field of wound healing and have the opportunity to hear the latest research findings in those fields.

My supervisor, A/Prof Allison Cowen is an invited speaker at this conference where she will talk about the role of Flightless (Flii) in burns and incisional wounds. My own abstract has been accepted to talk about the role of Flii in EB. Presentation at this conference will allow me to network with other scientists and contribute my findings increasing a better understanding of EB. I will have a chance to talk about my interpretations of and get alternative interpretations about significance of my work. I will be exposed to the latest research in my field and these developments may affect how I interpret my results, allowing me to place my work into broader scientific context.

Conference #2: European Society of Dermatological Research: this conference will have a mix of both scientists and clinicians working together and offering a wider range of expertise in area of dermatology. There will be a number of presentations focussing on EB and inherited skin blistering disorders specific to my current project. Moreover, Prof Zambruno, an expert in the field of blistering disorders will give an update on inherited epithelial adhesion disorders in context of wound repair. Prof. Dédée Murrell, from Sydney, will also attend this conference and talk about her clinical trials. I will also be presenting my data on role of Flii protein in EB. The dual experience of presenting my findings for examination by my peers and hearing about relevant findings from other EB researchers and clinicians will provide me with better understanding of the clinical practice associated with EB. This in turn will expand my view on my PhD thesis and how my findings could translate to novel therapeutic products for improved wound healing of patients suffering from EB.

Laboratory Involvement: following the conferences, I will be visiting our collaborators in Germany spending 2 weeks in the specialised EB laboratory of Prof. L Bruckner-Tuderman. In Adelaide, we are currently using an autoimmune murine model of EB aquisita, however by attending a specialized laboratory of our collaborators, I hope to learn about development of the new genetic hypomorphic collagen VII mouse model of EB which more closely resembles the characteristics of severe Dystrophic EB disease. This would complement our current research significantly. This visit will allow me to be trained by experienced scientists in Dr L Bruckner-Tunderman’s laboratory on mouse model development and new methods of in-vitro collagen VII assay analysis and other aspects of my research.
This travel opportunity allows me to conduct research required in order to complete my PhD studies, to obtain expert advice on my project and will enhance for my career and future collaborations.