The economic burden of failing skin repair and non-healing ulcers for patients, their families, and society at large is extensive. Currently, the costs of treating wounds are estimated to be 3-10% of the total health care budgets of Western countries. The prevalence of non-healing wound is over 40 million worldwide and this number is projected to grow 6-9% annually with ageing of the population and the rising incidence of diseases that contribute to non-healing ulcer development, such as obesity and diabetes.

Given the importance of innate immunity and microbial interactions for development of impaired wound healing, my research aims at integrating novel concepts of pathogen-host interactions with in vitro and in vivo studies on bacterial modulation of the wound bed, analyses of patient samples from various types of (infected and non-infected) wounds and novel drug delivery concepts, together establishing frontline translational research.