The Richard M. Schulze Family Foundation has awarded $2.4 million to scientists at the University of Minnesota in support of regenerative skin research, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

The funds will accelerate the work of a team at the university's Stem Cell Institute to grow healthy new skin for patients disfigured by burns or diseases. The team has succeeded in taking stem cells from patients' skin, correcting genetic deficiencies if necessary, and producing healthy skin tissue. The next step is to create a biological scaffold that directs stem cells to the sites of wounds or injuries so new skin grows in the right locations and proportions.

If skin stem cells could be transplanted, they could be used to treat patients injured in accidents, fires, or combat; those whose skin has been eroded by diseases or potent cancer therapies; and those with rare skin conditions such as epidermolysis bullosa — a lack of collagen protein that causes children to have extremely fragile skin. In addition, skin stem cell transplants could reduce the severity of treatments such as skin grafts and, because the patients' own tissue is used to grow healthy skin, also minimize the risk of rejection.

"We think we can restore health in conditions that have been, or are still, without effective therapy, or have been deemed incurable altogether," said institute director Jakub Tolar, who is leading the effort. "This is the next step. This is where medicine is going."