Healing powers of mathematics

MATHEMATICS may prove to have healing properties if research into scarring comes up with the right answers. Number-crunchers at Warwick and Oxford universities are using mathematical modelling to examine the processes involved in the way wounds mend.

Using data collected by biologists at Manchester University, Jonathan Sherratt, at Warwick, and Philip Maini, from Oxford, are looking at the complex interactions of some 50 proteins which regulate wound repair. By understanding why some wounds heal better than others, scientists should be able to develop medications to improve healing.