
Andrew has been at the Burn Injury Research Unit since the beginning of his research career, starting as a graduate research assistant in 2009. After 2 years in this position he transitioned in to a PhD with the group, working on a project entitled ‘the epigenetics of scar cells’, which examined why scar cells stay as scar cells for the rest of our lives after we are injured. He successfully defended his thesis in 2016 and it was conferred later that year, after which he stayed on in a postdoc position with the group, where he has been since. During this time, he has been working on multiple projects – continuing his work examining scar cells, helping develop one of first anti-scarring drugs to make it to clinical trials, and collaborating with interstate both industry and academic researchers to develop 3D bioprinting for use in the surgical theatre. He has published 25 scientific papers in his time with the group, including publishing his PhD work as a first author in the Journal of Investigative Dermatology (top ranked Dermatology journal in 2022) and publishing the scar drug pre-clinical work as third author in Nature Communications (highly ranked journal in Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology journals 2022). He has represented the Fiona Wood Foundation regularly at both national and international conferences, presenting his work in Boston and Tokyo as well as Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane.
His current major project, for which he received a Raine Priming Grant for, is for a project entitled “Developing next generation cell therapies for enhancing skin regeneration after injury”. This project involves both basic science and translational work, improving ReCell (“Spray-on-skin”), a staple in improving wounds and scars for burn patients. Recent scientific advances have discovered different sub-types of skin cells, some of which cause bad scarring, and also that certain natural proteins may help skin heal faster. This project combines ReCell and this new knowledge, using a unique magnetic technique to separate the ‘bad’ cells from the ReCell before applying them to patients, and adding beneficial proteins to improve wound and scar outcomes.