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.
Evaluation of Human Acellular Dermal Matrix in Joint Arthroplasty
Alex Wong MD
2014
University of Southern California
PSF/MTF Biologics Allograft Tissue Research Grant
Hand or Upper Extremity
Human acellular dermal matrices (HADMs) have been widely used for over 15 years in a variety of surgical indications. Although clinical outcomes and histologic revascularization of HADMs have been studied extensively in burns, breast, abdominal wall, and head and neck reconstruction, little is known about their use in joint space arthroplasty.
Recently, a limited number of clinical studies have proposed the use of HADMs as joint spacers for arthroplasty techniques in both the hand the foot. Initial outcomes for these small cohorts are promising, but their long term efficacy and the biologic mechanism by which revascularization and tissue incorporation occur are relatively understudied. We plan to conduct a study evaluating the revascularization and tissue ingrowth of FlexHD, a HADM, in various folded configurations in both the joint space and subcutaneous tissue using an in vivo animal model. We will also radiographically evaluate their ability to maintain joint space using MRI.
These data will help researchers and clinicians understand the process of tissue incorporation and revascularization of HADMs in both the joint space and subcutaneous soft tissue. The results from this study will promote novel research directions and clinical indications for the use of HADMs in joint and soft tissue reconstruction.
I am a plastic surgeon-scientist at the Keck School of Medicine of University of Southern California with an independent research laboratory at the USC Institute for Genetic Medicine. My time/effort allocation to research is 75%. My laboratory studies basic and translation aspects of lymphedema using clinically relevant murine models. In 2012, Dr. Young-Kwon Hong and I discovered that 9-cis retinoic acid stimulates lymphangiogenesis in vitro and in vivo. We are currently exploring a role for 9-cis retinoic acid in the pharmacologic treatment of surgically induced lymphedema. Our work has been published in journals such as Circulation and Annals of Surgery and has been supported by grants from the Southern California Clinical Translational Science Institute, Whittier Foundation, and the NIH.