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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.

Molecular Basis for Neuroregenerative Effects of FK-506

Principal Investigator
Michael Brenner MD

Year
2003

Institution
Washington University

Funding Mechanism
Basic Research Grant

Focus Area
Tissue Engineering

Abstract
This study has clinical relevance to the management of all forms of traumatic peripheral nerve injury. Optimizing care of patients with peripheral nerve injury is an ongoing challenge for reconstructive surgeons and scientists alike. FK-506 (tacrolimus) has emerged as a prototype for future candidate therapies. Treatment with FK-506 results in enhanced nerve regeneration and accelerated functional recovery. Unfortunately, due to FK-506's potent immunosuppressive properties and significant toxicity profile, it is not acceptable to use this drug solely to promote nerve regeneration. It would therefore be highly desirable to isolate the neuroregenerative effects of FK-506. To do so requires a better understanding of the mechanism of action of this drug in regenerating nerve. The immediate goal of this study is to use cDNA microarrays to identify genes that are upregulated in injured nerve after treatment with FK-506. The experiment has been carefully designed to control for effects on genes that are influenced by immunosuppression, thereby enriching for those genes specifically involved in nerve regeneration. This study is a key step towards the long-term goal of developing therapeutic drugs that exploit FK-506's beneficial effects on injured nerve.