Collaborator and Senior Lecturer at RMIT’s School of Engineering, Dr Haiyan Li, said their innovation provided a promising and adaptive platform that overcame some of the barriers that have stopped smart wound dressings being brought to market.
“Many smart wound dressings developed in research laboratories are difficult to translate into real clinical products because they rely on complex designs or expensive sensing systems,” she said.
“Our approach integrates sensing and dual-mode therapeutic functions into a single dressing with a simple, streamlined design, which helps address some of the key challenges that have previously limited commercial translation.”
“Importantly, this work has defined concise design rules for future smart dressings.”
Next steps
These initial studies were done at the lab scale, with validation in appropriate in vivo wound models being a key future step.
Researchers are looking to partner up with industry to refine and scale up the technology and bring smart wound patches to market.
Study lead and Senior Lecturer at RMIT’s School of Engineering, Dr Lei Bao says that next steps will focus on further biological testing and preparing the technology for real-world applications.
“Our next step is to evaluate how this technology performs in more advanced biological models and to work with industry partners to refine the design for real clinical use,” she said.
“Ultimately, our goal is to translate this research into practical smart wound dressings and integrate this smart platform into a digital health ecosystem, where the data from the patch is collected, analysed, and used to drive clinical decisions to advance chronic wound management.”
The team used RMIT’s cutting-edge Micro Nano Research Facility and Microscopy and Microanalysis Facility to conduct this research.
‘Carbon-dot nanozyme-empowered responsive hydrogels for smart wound dressing’ was published in Chemical Engineering Science (DOI: 10.1016/j.ces.2025.123225)
To partner with RMIT, contact research.partnerships@rmit.edu.au
Story: Cherry Cai
