Modelling pathological wound healing (360G-Wellcome-099804_Z_12_A)

Wound healing is a complex process consisting of several overlapping stages mediated by a network of signalling molecules. Mathematical models have been extensively applied to this area of study, however theoretical investigations generally focus on a single stage of the process in isolation, and fail to incorporate the role of signalling molecules such as cytokines in mechanistic detail. Recent experimental studies have suggested that the timing of events such as cell proliferation play an important role in determining healing outcomes, but this hypothesis is yet to be studied using mathematical approaches. We aim to produce a more complete mathematical model of the overall wound healing process, using ordinary and partial differential equation approaches to describe the underlying molecular and biophysical mechanisms. Model predictions will be compared to in vivo experimental findings, making use of quantitative measures of features of the repair process (such as epithelial proliferation rates) wherever possible. The models will be refined accordinglyand used to investigate the effect of delays in the onset of cell proliferation on healing outcomes