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Wound Healing
David Becker is a Professor of Cellular Imaging and Director of the Centre for Cell and Molecular Dynamics imaging facility for the Faculty of Life Sciences UCL, and Professor in Tissue Repair and Regeneration at Lee Kong Chian School of Medicine, Nanyang Technological University.
Research themes investigate the roles of different connexins in chronic wound healing and fibrosis with the aim of understanding why these wounds fail to heal, whilst searching for new therapeutic targets. His research has shown that actively down-regulating the gap junction connexin protein Cx43, by applying an antisense gel to the wound, dramatically speeds up the process of wound healing whilst reducing inflammation and scarring. This patented approach is effective in promoting healing in a number of tissue injuries, from skin to cornea. It also highlights connexin expression as a potential therapeutic target for diabetic wound healing.
Following a ten year Royal Society Research Fellowship award he was made Professor at UCL. For his translational research he has more than a dozen worldwide patents pending and granted. In 2003 he won the Medical Futures Nomura award for the Best Biotech Start-Up Innovation. In 2006 he became a founding scientist of CoDaTherapeutics Inc, which has developed Nexagon, a drug which drives the healing of chronic wounds and has shown efficacy in phase 2B clinical trials on venous leg ulcers and is now being trialled on diabetic ulcers.
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Email address: d.becker@ucl.ac.uk