Grants Funded
Grant applicants for the 2024 cycle requested a total of nearly $3 million dollars. The PSF Study Section Subcommittees of Basic & Translational Research and Clinical Research evaluated more than 100 grant applications on the following topics:
The PSF awarded research grants totaling over $650,000 dollars to support more than 20 plastic surgery research proposals.
ASPS/PSF leadership is committed to continuing to provide high levels of investigator-initiated research support to ensure that plastic surgeons have the needed research resources to be pioneers and innovators in advancing the practice of medicine.
Research Abstracts
Search The PSF database to have easy access to full-text grant abstracts from past PSF-funded research projects 2003 to present. All abstracts are the work of the Principal Investigators and were retrieved from their PSF grant applications. Several different filters may be applied to locate abstracts specific to a particular focus area or PSF funding mechanism.
Expression of Regeneration-Associated Genes after Nerve Injury
Wale Sulaiman MD, PhD, FRCSC
2010
Ochsner Clinic Foundation
ASPN/PSF Research Grant
Peripheral Nerve
Injured peripheral nerves have to capacity to regenerate but this does not always translate into functional recovery in patients. We have studied extensively in previous experimental studies the factors responsible for suboptimal return of function in patients with these types of injuries The overall objective of our experimental design is to develop treatment strategies to will improve return of arm or leg function in patients that have sustained nerve injuries The experiments designed in this project are aimed at analyzing the molecular mechanisms of the growth-promoting effect of a growth factor, called transforming growth factor with the ultimate goal being to identify key molecular and/or genetic targets that can be manipulated to maximize nerve regeneration after injuries, which translates into functional recovery. We use a well-established animal model of nerve injury and repair that mimic clinical nerve injuries. Following nerve injuries in the animals, nerve repairs are supplemented with treatment with the growth factor and its effect on nerve regeneration and expression of other key molecules important for nerve regeneration is analyzed using well established laboratory techniques such as immunohistochemistry, light and electron microscopy as well as novel techniques such as gene array. The application of the gene array may lead to discovery of novel genes, molecules and proteins that may turn out to be essential to the process of nerve regeneration and return of function after nerve injuries. Therefore, findings of this research project have strong potential in greatly improving our understanding of how to optimize functional recovery in patients with nerve injuries.
