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.
Improved Tissue Eengineering Tthrough Predictive Mechanistic Models
Mytien Goldberg MD
2004
University of Southern California
Research Fellowship
Tissue Engineering
Outcomes for pediatric reconstructive surgeries are measured over decades and subject to a higher level of activity and addition than in adults (Eppley 2001). Current tissue engineered products such as Integra have acknowledged problems: material failure, increased rate of infection, and immune system destruction of foreign material. Furthermore, available bioengineered tissues do not grow or withstand a rapidly changing environment in pediatric patients. Thus, the future of tissue engineering in pediatric reconstructive surgery is to create readily available off the shelf bioengineered products that will satisfy the need for expansive growth. Human tissues possess distinctive biomechanical properties based on unique cell composition and extracellular matrix in three dimensional arrangements. Knowledge of 3-D Dimensional matrix of normal and scar tissue is limited. Furthermore, the mechanical stimulation on scar remodeling and biomechanical response of tissues to external forces are not well understood. Therefore, an optimal design of engineered tissue implants requires detailed understanding of the spatially varying requirements of tissue function in order to produce implants with appropriate response. Currently, the bioengineered products are a result of a trial-and-error process due to the lack of predictive mechanistic models. Therefore, this project aims develop and critically validate rigorous micromechanic models for structure/property relationships in engineered tissues based on investigations of mechanical driving forces on fibroblast function and activity within engineered tissues. We will also examine the mechanical functioning and structure of normal human tissue and hypertrophic scar tissue. The results of these investigations will provide a tissue engineer with the knowledge to design the optimal combination of structural and biochemical performance that will be applicable to pediatric patients. Within the given time frame of one year, the main goal for this project is to investigate the roles of biomechanical stimulation and structure characterization of normal and hypertrophic human skin and bioengineered tissues called fibroblast populated tissue analog (FPTA).