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.
Culturing the Non-Culturable: The Secret Pathogens of Chronic Wounds
Stephen Harlin MD, FACS
2008
Drexel University
Basic Research Grant
Wounds/Scar
The purpose of this study is to more fully characterize the resident microflora of chronic wounds of the lower extremity (CWLEs) and explore the role of quorum sensing (QS) systems in latent bacterial infections. Because QS has been shown to regulate proliferation and colonization within their hosts, it is hypothesized that bacterial QS systems may be altered when microflora is grown in conventional laboratory culture media, which may render many pathogenic bacteria nonculturable. Thus, disruption of the QS system through introduction of an agent such as Quorum Sensing Quenching (QSQTM; developed by Athena Biotechnologies, Inc.) to conventional culture media may facilitate growth, detection, and identification of pathogenic microflora of CWLEs when paired with 16S rRNA PCR. Additionally, identification of commensal bacteria that provide host protection through production of 'antibiotic' factors may also have future treatment implications. In the long-term, a more explicit characterization of nonculturable microorganisms, latent bacterial infections and biofilms, paired with a better understanding of QS could direct novel healing therapies for CWLEs and better management of tissue ulceration. Finally, this study may also offer a better understanding of the potentiality of antimicrobial use on clinically uninfected wounds.