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.
Fabrication of a Chemotactic Smart Scaffold for Bone Regeneration
Akishige Hokugo
2011
University of California, Los Angeles
A major focus in the field of craniofacial surgery is the development of tissue-engineered bone with biomimetic functionality allowing for its translation to the clinical setting. One of the greatest goals is achieving complete bone regeneration even on a large-scale defect. One challenge is the difficulty associated with successfully engrafting a bioactive construct with significant metabolic, circulatory, oxygenic, and nutritional needs into a potentially hostile growth environment. Our approach to this challenge is engineering a “smart scaffold” that incorporates the osteoconductive properties of an apatite-coated scaffold, the osteogenic potential of huma mesenchymal stem cells (HMSCs), and the angiogenic effects of vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) to effectively create an in situ regenerative bioreactor with self-sustaining qualities ensuring cell survival and prolonged tissue regeneration. By engineering HMSCs that overexpress VEGF, hypoxia at the defect site can be mitigated and the chemotactic effects of VEGF can support the homing and attachment of HMSCs to the scaffold, boosting its osteogenic potential.
Dr. Akishige Hokugo received his dental degree (D.D.S.) in 1999 from Osaka Dental University in Japan. He then entered the Graduate School of Dentistry in the First Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery at the same university, where he received training in oral and maxillofacial surgery and Ph.D. research. He received his Ph.D. in 2003. He then worked as a COE researcher (postdoctoral research fellow) in the Department of Biomaterials at the Institute for Frontier Medical Sciences of Kyoto University under the supervision of Prof. Yasuhiko Tabata from 2004 to 2006. Dr. Hokugo was a postdoctoral research fellow of the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) from 2006 to 2008. In 2007 Dr. Hokugo moved to United States. He was a postdoctoral scholar under Dr. Ichiro Nishimura in the Weintraub Center for Reconstructive Biotechnology at the UCLA School of Dentistry. Dr. Hokugo’s research focused on bisphosphonate-related osteonecrosis of the jaw (BRONJ) from the perspectives of osteoimmunology and bone metabolism. He also focused on wound healing of gingiva and influence of vitamin D insufficiency for alveolar bone healing. From 2014, Dr. Hokugo is an Adjunct Assistant Professor after his postdoctoral scholar under Dr. Reza Jarrahy in Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. His current research focuses on various tissue regeneration including bone, peripheral nerve, and skin based on tissue engineering technologies.