A smart dressing that uses blue-light therapy for wound healing and which can also monitor and treat infections has been developed by an EU-funded consortium … Blue light is already known for its anti-bacterial and anti-inflammatory effects, but now the EU-funded MEDILIGHT consortium has harnessed it to aid the healing of chronic wounds such as those suffered by patients with diabetes … “The aim is to have a non-chemical solution for chronic wounds,” says project coordinator Dionysios Manessis of the System Integration and Interconnection Technologies Department, Technical University Berlin. “We found that blue light originally thought to be good for disinfection also produces good results for proliferation of keratinocytes and fibroblasts—the types of skin cells needed for wound closure.” … With EUR 3 million of EU funding for just over three years, the research team was able to produce a smart wearable device from scratch. The prototype consists of a soft, flexible foil with blue LEDs (light emitting diodes) and sensors. This is inserted into a transparent pocket over the wound dressing … read more