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.
Vascular Malformations: Investigation of Pubertal Hormone Expression
Reid Maclellan MD, MMSc
2013
Children's Hospital Boston
Pilot Research Grant
Cranio / Maxillofacial / Head and Neck
Vascular malformations are a group of congenital lesions affecting the pediatric population; they occur in 1/200 children. Morbidity includes disfigurement, pain, infection, bleeding, embolism, heart failure, and death. Cure is rare and laser, sclerotherapy, embolization, or excision are used to control these lesions. Vascular malformations are particularly problematic because they enlarge over time and drug treatment is not available. The goal of this project is to determine why vascular malformations enlarge, so that pharmacotherapy may be developed. We hypothesize that gonadotropic hormones and/or somatomedins stimulate their growth. To test our hypothesis we will measure gonadotropic hormones and somatomedins in prospectively collected human vascular malformation tissue. Patients will be recruited through our Vascular Anomalies Center, which is the oldest and largest international referral center for the care of children with vascular malformations. The results of these studies will be translated immediately to patient care. If gonadotropic hormones and somatomedins are implicated in the growth of vascular malformations, then clinical trials testing FDA-approved hormone antagonists would be initiated. These drugs may be able to keep vascular malformations small, minimizing their morbidity and improving quality of life. Similarly, pharmacotherapy might increase the efficacy of our current management options (laser, sclerotherapy, embolization, excision) by reducing the recurrence of vascular malformations after these treatments.
Reid A. Maclellan, MD, MMSc is a researcher at Boston Children’s Hospital. He received his BS from the University of Alabama at Birmingham and his MD from the University of Alabama School of Medicine. He completed a general surgery internship at the University of Tennessee College of Medicine Chattanooga. Dr. Maclellan then completed a plastic surgery research fellowship at Boston Children’s Hospital. During this time, he earned a Master in Medical Sciences Degree in translational research at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Maclellan is currently an Instructor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and Associate Director of the Department of Plastic and Oral Surgery research laboratory. His research focus is in the fields of vascular anomalies and lymphedema.