The research could make a significant difference for burns and other trauma patients. Targeting the gene that instructs stem cells to form scars reduced scarring in the animal study, says Kiarash Khosrotehrani, professor at the University of Queensland. “The body’s natural response to trauma is to make plenty of blood vessels to take oxygen and nutrients to the wound to repair it,” Khosrotehrani says. “Once the wound has closed, many of these blood vessels become fibroblast cells which produce the collagens forming the hard materials found in scar tissue. “We found that vascular stem cells determined whether a blood vessel was retained or gave rise to scar material instead.”