HAMILTON, ON, June 15, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Hamilton Health Sciences (HHS) burn experts are the first in the world to use a novel biological treatment to save the face of a young woman who was severely burned in a London, Ontario house fire last December.
The treatment used exosomes - tiny particles released by cells that carry signals from one cell to another to help coordinate rapid healing and tissue repair and reduce inflammation. The particles are collected, typically from lab-grown cells, and injected into the injured areas to accelerate healing - much more so than the current standard of skin grafting, which can leave scarring and a patch-like appearance.
Exosomes have been studied for years as part of burn research, but not yet in humans. Clinical trials involving humans have used exosomes for other types of wound healing, with promising results.
Western University student Kaitlin Jeffrey, 18, of Toronto, received the innovative treatment and healed faster, and with better results, than another young student whose burns from that same fire were serious, but not as severe. The other student wasn't a candidate for exosome treatment because their injuries did not require skin grafting.
"My vision for Kaitlin was to avoid skin graft surgery to her face and neck at any cost," says Dr. Marc Jeschke, vice president of research and innovation at HHS, burn surgeon and researcher, and a global authority on burns, who performed Jeffrey's surgery. Dr. Jeschke is also a professor of surgery at McMaster University, HHS's key academic partner.
Dr. Jeschke is also the medical director of the regional burn program at HHS' Hamilton General Hospital - one of Ontario's two regional burn centres where the most seriously injured patients in the province are treated. Co-located on the Hamilton General Hospital campus is HHS' Centre for Burn Research, where teams are leading medical advancements and research into burn treatment, including exosome therapy.
After getting the green light from Jeffrey and her parents, Jeschke sent an urgent application to Health Canada to try exosome therapy on compassionate grounds. Receiving no objection, Jeschke and his HHS team became the first in the world to perform this treatment on a burn patient. Jeffrey's two treatments, which took place several days apart, used one trillion exosomes sourced from the United States.
"You can do the best graft on the planet, but you won't return the skin to normal. And, for a young person, a skin graft to the face and neck can be absolutely devastating," he says.
"It's honestly a miracle," Jeffrey says of results with respect to her face. "Being injured in the fire has also had deep impact on my mental health, and it's something I'm continuing to deal with. But having such good results, particularly to my face, is helping me move forward."
Jeffrey and her family are extremely grateful to Dr. Jeschke and the entire burn centre team. With further research, Jeschke hopes the world-first treatment will become the new standard of care for burn patients in Canada and beyond.
"Like Dr. Jeschke, my family and I would love to see exosome therapy become the standard of care for patients like myself in Canada, so that when horrific things happen, it doesn't change people's lives forever," says Jeffrey.
Multimedia Resources:
- Informational video - https://hhsc.box.com/s/ob6jn5iaid05c6a6vbx6mylmfit2j7ua
- Healing Process and Progress video - https://hhsc.box.com/s/0fy9db4n4o39endip8o91g2uk760prw8
- Broll video - https://hhsc.box.com/s/tjsextk12u9zjn0vr3e39jgie5h1y5di
- Print photos - https://hhsc.box.com/s/47brahsddb4qm2guv6zh9cqpildco766
- Web photos - https://hhsc.box.com/s/4xg8lorzg43vb3q4hwh6g5vc4fyqklgh
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