By Tim Bonfield
The Cincinnati Enquirer

At Shriners, Dr. Steven Boyce has spent years developing a process that can grow cultured skin for wound repair. (Gary Landers photo) | ZOOM |

CORRYVILLE - Medical research at the Shriners Cincinnati Burns Hospital is getting a $1 million gift from Fifth Third Bank.

The grant, to be announced today, will be used to hire a full-time director of research. The new director, in turn, is expected to help expand and accelerate research projects at one of the nation's top centers for burn care for children.

The Cincinnati hospital is one of four Shriners burns centers nationwide and the only one that offers a specialized air transport service for pediatric burn victims. Hundreds of patients a year come to the center from around the world to get acute and long-term burn care.

And unlike almost any other health care organization, there are no bills for service - not to families, insurance companies or the government. All services are paid for by donations.

Nationwide, about 300,000 people a year seek medical care for burn injuries, while 60,000 are hospitalized. Children account for more than 35 percent of all fire and burn injuries and deaths, according to Shriners.

Even with a part-time research director since 1991, the Shriners center gets about $3.4 million a year for burn-related research. The Cincinnati hospital focuses on four areas: wound coverage, controlling inflammation and shock reactions, infection control and nutrition.

Among the most far-reaching projects at Shriners is a "cultured skin substitute" that has been studied and developed for years by a team led by Dr. Steven Boyce.

The product uses skin cells from a patient combined with a special polymer to grow patches of skin in a laboratory that can be used to cover large burn wounds.

Starting with a quarter-sized piece of skin, the team can grow skin grafts 65 times as large. Meanwhile, other researchers at Shriners are studying ways to genetically modify the cultured skin to increase its resistance to infection. The product is nearly ready for a nationwide clinical trial.

"We've been doing clinical studies for years," Boyce said. "The advantage of a full-time research director would be to increase the amount of integration of projects and to increase the amount of collaboration with UC and other medical centers."

About Shriners Hospital

The Cincinnati facility is one of four Shriners Hospitals nationwide specializing in burn care for children. The other burns hospitals are in Boston; Galveston, Texas, and Sacramento, Calif.

All medical care is provided at no cost to patients, parents or any third party. The hospital system is supported by donations from Shriners and the public.

The Cincinnati hospital has 30 inpatient beds. It admitted 288 acute care patients in 2002 and 711 patients for rehabilitation care. The Cincinnati burn hospital also has the only pediatric burn air transport service in the country.

Research areas include wound healing and coverage; immunology/infection control; and nutrition/metabolism.

E-mail tbonfield@enquirer.com