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Meet Fiona Wood
Professor Fiona Wood AO is one of Australia’s most recognised plastic surgeons and medical researchers, known worldwide for the invention of spray-on skin for the treatment of burns. Having spent decades at the operating table, she is now turning her attention almost entirely to research, driven by a belief that the most important contribution she can make is interrogating what comes next and translating that for the people working at the front line.
In this episode, Fiona unpacks the remarkable journey from laboratory bench to commercial product, the funding challenges that slow medical research in Australia, and how assigning the royalties from spray-on skin into a not-for-profit foundation has kept her team alive and growing for decades. She also shares what is keeping her awake at night right now, from scar-free healing and the spiny mouse, the only mammal known to regenerate, to the extraordinary question of how to heal skin in space.
She reflects too on the lifelong relationships formed with burn patients, the lessons learned from the Bali bombings, and the advice she would give her 18-year-old self.
