As part of a new Department of Defense initiative, Assoc. Plastic Surgery Prof. Adam Katz will expand his research to include wound-healing and scar prevention therapies for soldiers, specifically, he said, to work on "fat-derived therapies" for the Armed Forces Institute of Regenerative Medicine.
Katz said his lab currently focuses on using fat-derived therapies for chronic wounds.
"I will use the same type of platform to address military wounds," Katz said, adding that he will focus on traumatic wounds soldiers often face.
In addition to what Katz called the honor and privilege of being able to help soldiers fighting in wars around the globe, he said the opportunity to collaborate with prominent scientists in tissue engineering encouraged him to participate in this research.
According to a Department of Defense press release, the research will focus on five areas: burn repair, wound healing without scarring, craniofacial reconstruction, limb reconstruction, regeneration or transplantation, and compartment syndrome. Compartment syndrome, the press release stated, is a condition related to inflammation after surgery or injury that can lead to increased pressure, impaired blood flow, nerve damage and muscle death.
Col. Bob Vandre, government manager for AFIRM, said the Defense Department chose 67 AFIRM researchers who are the "who's who of regenerative medicine" and who will commit at least five years to the research.
Vandre said these AFIRM researchers are divided into two consortia, the first led by Rutgers University and the Cleveland Clinic and the second led by Wake Forest University and the University of Pittsburgh. Katz, who is the only participating doctor from Virginia, is part of the Rutgers University and Cleveland Clinic consortium, Vandre added.
The overall AFIRM funding available to the researchers will total more than $250 million, with $85 million in defense funding and $180 million from academic institutions, industry and state and federal agencies.
"I just see this as the beginning of a process that's going to attract more and more interest and more and more support," stated Lieut. Gen. Eric Schoomaker, U.S. Army surgeon general, in a Department of Defense press conference transcript.
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