Improving Quality of Life for People Living with EB: Developing an interdisciplinary network to evaluate requirements and engineering solutions for a second skin technology

The aim of this project is exchanging ideas between academics from the University of Bristol and collaborators from Cure EB, where design and development of a soft wearable artificial skin for people suffering from Epidermolysis Bullosa (EB) is investigated. This idea exchange also considers the ethical aspects involved within the study phase and deployment of such a technology. This project is interdisciplinary and brings together academics with backgrounds in structural mechanics, material science, soft robotics, medical ethics and also collaborators who are engaged in daily life with different aspects of supporting and caring about the people suffering from EB. The main challenge to address is finding an engineering solution that leverages the quality of life and mobility of the patient and carer, because most of the previous studies investigate EB from medical point of view to find a healing and curing process. While, a technical solution that mitigates the effect of environmental stimuli that adversely affect the patients is missing.