Healing through regenerative medicine

Kerem ?itak?[2024] comes from a medical family, but he opted instead to go into Materials Science and Bioengineering. At the heart of his work at Cambridge, however, is an emphasis on healing.

He arrived there through his interest in materials science and its potential to tackle global challenges. Indeed it is at the intersection of materials science and healthcare innovation that his academic interests converge. His PhD focuses on tissue engineering scaffolds for regenerative medicine, with an emphasis on healing skin wounds.

He plans to create a 3D network which can be repurposed according to the specific needs of a particular cell. The aim is to build a cost-effective wound healing method for people with chronic ulcers [for instance, foot ulcers caused by diabetes], high-degree burns, bed sores or other wounds that the body cannot heal. “It needs to be a cheap and reproducible method,” says Kerem.

For him it is a new departure, but he smiles when he talks about it. He may not have followed his parents into medicine, but his work is still about healing. “I did not become a doctor, but I am working on medical advances and healing. I want to be useful,” he says.

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