The Blond McIndoe Research Foundation in the 21st Century

It is over 50 years since the death of Sir Archibald McIndoe, pioneering plastic surgeon. He is remembered by many for the innovation and care he brought to burns and plastic surgery treatment during and after the Second World War. This year funds are being raised to build a statue to commemorate his work in ’The town that did not stare’, East Grinstead.

Although this statue will highlight his amazing surgical achievements, we should also remember that he also helped create the Blond McIndoe Research Foundation (BMRF) with his friends Neville Blond and Elaine Blond. This research institution was created to develop evidence based treatments for burns and wounds to help patients heal quicker and more effectively. He wanted the future of plastic surgery to depend on good science and innovation to ensure that future generations got the best care wherever they were. We feel that these aspirations and the output of the Blond McIndoe is an important legacy that continues to help patients in the 21st century.

The Blond McIndoe has flourished recently. Having celebrated 50 years and looked back at some of the important work it was responsible for in the fields of transplantation biology, nerve regeneration and skin culture we are now developing a new approach to our research that ensures we can link basic science, translation and clinical benefits in a more cohesive manner.

In collaboration with The University of Brighton, we recently appointed Professor Tony Metcalfe to be our Director of Research.  Professor Metcalfe is spearheading the new research programme in our own laboratories at East Grinstead. In addition we will be further developing partnerships and collaborations in the fields of biomaterials, skin culture, wound infection, wound healing and scar reduction. We are working very closely with University of Brighton and Queen Victoria Hospital as well research teams from Imperial College, University of Bath, University College and Brighton & Sussex Medical School. We are also now in the process of collaborating with other independent research charities such as Restore to develop a programme of research that ensures we get patient oriented research in a cost effective and timely manner.

Our research programme aims to develop new methodologies using cells and biomaterials together to achieve a more rapid wound closure and create an environment to support a more regenerative healing process. Innovative cell culture techniques employing microbeads rather than growing cells in conventional tissue culture flasks are being used as these latter techniques often require potentially harmful enzymes to release the cells from the flask. Other approaches in our research programme involve changing the environment of wounds by affecting the amount of oxygen around them, detecting changes in wounds that may require different treatments and using innovative products to prevent or treat infection. Our programme of research is also investigating how we can improve the contours of soft tissues after injury. By combining skin and fat cells from the patient with innovative biomaterials we aim to develop and improve the treatment modalities available to clinicians to restore tissue volume lost following injury. Other projects within the BMRF are investigating the reduction of scarring using novel and natural biomaterials whilst also investigating how drugs used to treat medical conditions may affect scarring and wound healing.

Many of our projects have been developed with scientists and clinicians working together to answer the questions our patients put to us. By looking at what we do now, what concerns our patients and working with innovators in the scientific field we plan to create sound treatments that help and enhance our patients’ lives.

The way that we treat burns today is very different to the methods used by McIndoe but are based on his principles and approach. We at BMRF are keen to ensure that tomorrow's burns treatments are developed using the same approach and principles that McIndoe demonstrated in World War Two - innovation, patient centred and inclusive.

The Blond McIndoe depends entirely on charitable donations to fund its research programme – without these donations there would be no research and no patient benefit. To donate or to find out more about the charity please visit www.blondmcindoe.org

Baljit Dheansa
BAPRAS Full Member