Share Researchers have been able to reduce scarring by blocking part of the healing process in research that could make a significant difference for burns and other trauma patients. University of Queensland Professor Kiarash Khosrotehrani said scars had been reduced by targeting the gene that instructs stem cells to form them in an animal study. “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,” Professor Khosrotehrani said. “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.