Defeat the bacterium, skin decease Epidermolysis Bullosa research
EB, Epidermolysis Bullosa, is a rare but terrible disease. For someone who has EB, the smallest touch of the skin can already lead to very painful blisters and wounds, sometimes all over the body. Microbiologist Jan Maarten van Dijl from the UMCG wants to help the, often very young, patients. He wants to find out how the bacteria in the wounds, causing much pain, can be defeated. In 2013 the Ubbo Emmius Fund started a crowdfunding campaign (www.rugsteunt.nl) for the research of Van Dijl. The fund collected more than € 14.500.
Flywheel effect
What started as a small part of the investigation into the S. aureus bacterial behavior in the chronic wounds of Epidermolysis Bullosa patients, has led to a flywheel effect. In the autumn of 2013 a charitable foundation made a donation of € 75,000. Meanwhile, the Graduate School of Medical Sciences of the UMCG has guaranteed the costs of a researcher for three years.
- Epidermolysis Bullosa
Also, a second research on EB started, thanks to a donation of € 50,000 by the Eleven Flowers Fund. This research is conducted by Petra de Graaf, led by Marcel Jonkman (Director of the Center for Blistering Diseases, UMCG) and looks at the psychosocial effects of the wound care of EB patients. Often parents take care of the wounds of their children themselves, and this brings them a lot of stress. De Graaf wants to analyze the effect this has within a family and how the wound care could best be implemented.
More information and donating
On the crowdfunding website www.rugsteunt.nl (archive) you can read more about this research. Through this site, you can still make a donation to support this project.
Additional links
| Last modified: | 04 July 2023 1.17 p.m. |