Grants We Funded
Grant applicants for the 2023 cycle requested a total of nearly $4 million dollars. The PSF Study Section Subcommittees of Basic & Translational Research and Clinical Research evaluated nearly 140 grant applications on the following topics:
The PSF awarded research grants totaling over $1 million dollars to support nearly 30 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.
A Transgenic Rat Expressing GFP in Peripheral Nerves
Amy Moore MD
2009
Washington University in St. Louis
Pilot Research Grant
Microsurgery, Composite Tissue Allotransplantation
Peripheral nerve injuries are a common and debilitating problem for which we still have inadequate solutions and suboptimal functional outcomes. For this reason, the field of peripheral nerve research is indispensible. The specific aim of this project is to demonstrate that the novel transgenic rat model, the Thy1-GFP rat, which expresses green fluorescent protein (GFP) in peripheral nerves, can be used to evaluate nerve injury and introduce new outcome measures that will complement the already validated measures established in the non-fluorescing rat model.
This study will examine three common peripheral nerve surgical paradigms, i.e. nerve crush, transection and repair, and nerve graft placement, in the Thy1-GFP rats. We will assess nerve regeneration with in vivo serial imaging, confocal microscopy, histomorphometry and walking track analysis. The underlying rationale is that no previous rat model exists that has GFP expression isolated to the central and peripheral nervous system. GFP expression allows for direct visualization of nerve regeneration and muscle reinnervation. Although mouse models with this expression exist, there are many limitations to their application in peripheral nerve research. Thus, in this feasibility and model development study we hope to show that this novel transgenic rat line can be used as a validated model in the advancement of peripheral nerve research.
Nerve injuries are devastating. As hand and microsurgeons, plastic surgeons have a large impact in the treatment of these injuries. With the advances in neurobiology and the creation of transgenic animals to assess nerve regeneration, enhanced understanding of nerve regeneration will translate to improved clinical outcomes.
Amy Moore, MD is currently a plastic surgery resident at Washington University in St. Louis. She obtained her medical degree at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Dr. Moore recently completed two dedicated research years in Dr. Susan Mackinnon’s Peripheral Nerve Research Laboratory where she focused on characterizing transgenic rats that express GFP in their peripheral nerves. She recently won the Snyder Award for best resident paper at the 2009 Plastic Surgery Research Council . She also studied the enhancement of peripheral nerve regeneration through conduits with the addition of growth factors. Upon the completion of her training, Dr. Moore hopes to enter a career in academic medicine.