The Plastic Surgery Foundation
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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.

Role of MMP-9 in Wound Healing

Principal Investigator
Lily Lee MD

Year
2008

Institution
University of Sourthern California

Funding Mechanism
Basic Research Grant

Focus Area
Wounds/Scar

Abstract
Delayed or failed wound healing is a serious problem acutely, but with long term repercussions. Chronic wounds are the cause of suffering to thousands of patients and require an immense utilization of health care. In the bum unit, patients who heal slowly are the same ones who later struggle with scars, contractures, leading to impaired function and return to normal life. Active MMP-9 has been found at pathologically higher levels in chronic wounds when compared to a normal wound or normal skin. We believe that excess MMP-9 causes wounds to be unable to close. In the proposed project, we seek to prove our hypothesis that unbridled overexpression ofMMP-9 in keratinocytes slows the healing of wounds. Further, we then evaluate the ability of MMP-9 inhibitors to restore the slowed wound healing into a normal trajectory.