Restore is delighted to announce The Freemasons donation of £20,000 towards Fadi Issa’s (MA BMBCh MRCS DPhil) project, which is looking at ways of helping patients with extensive burns that need skin grafts.

Based in research labs at John Radcliffe Hospital, part of Oxford University, Fadi is looking at Treg cells, a type of immune cell that can stop the body rejecting a skin graft. His work holds vast promise in transplants of all kinds. In the treatment of deep burns, early removal of the damaged tissue and reconstruction by skin grafting is key to reducing patient mortality. However, in patients with extensive burns, this treatment is limited by the amount of remaining healthy skin that may be used for skin grafting.

Despite significant advances, artificial skin substitutes cannot yet provide an adequate cosmetic result. They often integrate poorly and tighten due to contracture in the long- term. While cadaveric skin grafts are cosmetically superior, they do not survive beyond a few weeks due to destruction by the immune system which senses that the graft skin cells are from an unrecognised source.

Restore Research is proud to be amongst the newly supported charities by the Freemasons.

The Freemasons’ Grand Charity is a grant-making charity dedicated to supporting people in need, donating nearly £8 million each year in the areas of: medical research, support for vulnerable people, youth opportunities, hospice services, air ambulances and disaster relief.