Research Day 2016

The UF Department of Surgery celebrated it’s 12th Research Day on Wednesday, March 16. 

Award Winners

The UF Department of Surgery had an excellent collection of quality abstract submissions for both Basic and Clinical Science. The following are this year’s awardees:

Best Basic Science Abstract Award

  • James Christian Brown, M.D.  (Lab Resident)
    Primary Mentor: Adam Katz, M.D.
    Characterization of Adipose Derived Cells from a Novel Mammalian Model of Regeneration

Best Clinical/Translational Science Abstract Award

  • Tyler Loftus, M.D.  (Lab Resident)
    Primary Mentor: Alicia M. Mohr, M.D.
    Early Routine Bronchoalveolar Lavage Improves Outcomes for a select Cohort of Intubated Trauma Patients

Research Career Development Award(s)

This year the Department of Surgery continued to award the Research Career Development Award (RCDA) to faculty in the Department of Surgery. These annual awards, consisting of up to $25,000 in direct funding, are intended to support clinical, translational and basic research programs for junior faculty within the Department of Surgery that will lead to independent external funding. The following are this year’s awardees:

  • Sooyeon Lee, Ph.D.  
    The role of mitofusin-1 and mitochondrial dynamics in ischemia/reperfusion injury in old hepatocytes
  • Elizabeth Thomas, D.O.
    The Use of Microfluidics and Transcriptomics to Implement Precision Medicine in Post Solid Organ Transplant Patients

Mentored Resident Research Award(s)

This year the Department of Surgery continued to award the Mentored Resident Research Development Award (MRRA) to residents and their mentors to support their laboratory research experience. These annual awards, consisting of up to $25,000 in direct funding, are intended to support lab residents during within the Department of Surgery. The following are this year’s awardees:

  • David J. Hall, M.D.  (PGY-3)
    Primary Mentor: Tiago N Machuca, MD, PhD
    Ex Vivo Modulation of the Endothelin-1 Axis in a Pre-Clinical Lung Transplantation Model

Ardelle B. McGray Pancreatic Cancer Research Award(s)

This year the Ardelle B. McGray Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund awarded $500 to:

  • Song Han, Ph.D.
    MIR-205 Derived from Pancreatic Cancer Cells Induces CXCL10 Production by the Associated Stroma

Lester Dragstedt Visiting Professor

  • Michael T. Longaker, MD, MBA, FACS
    Deane P. & Louise Mitchell Professor
    Vice Chair, Department of Surgery
    Co-Director, Institute for Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine
    Director, Program in Regenerative Medicine
    Director, Children’s Surgical Research
    Professor, by Courtesy, Department of Bioengineering
    Professor, by Courtesy, Department of Materials Science and Engineering Stanford University School of Medicine
    “Minimizing Scarring Following Surgery”
Michael T. Longaker

Michael T. Longaker, MD, MBA, FACS

Michael T. Longaker earned his undergraduate degree at Michigan State University, (where he played varsity basketball and was a member of the 1979 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Team) and his medical degree at Harvard Medical School. He completed his surgical residency at the University of California, San Francisco, a residency in Plastic Surgery at NYU and a craniofacial fellowship at UCLA. The majority of his research training took place while he was a Post Doctoral Research Fellow in the Fetal Treatment Program under Dr. Michael Harrison and in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Banda in Radiobiology, both at UCSF. In December 2003, Dr. Longaker earned his M.B.A. from University of California – Berkeley and Columbia University, in the inaugural class of their combined program. He was elected into Beta Gamma Sigma at Columbia Business School, which is the analogous to Phi Beta Kappa for business programs

Dr. Longaker joined the Stanford University School of Medicine on September 1, 2000, as Director of Children’s Surgical Research in the Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital. In 2003, he was named the Deane P. and Louise Mitchell Professor. As Director of Children’s Surgical Research, Dr. Longaker has the responsibility to develop a children’s surgical research program in the broad areas of developmental biology, epithelial biology and tissue repair, and tissue engineering. Dr. Longaker is the Co- Director of the Stanford Institute of Stem Cell Biology & Regenerative Medicine, as well as the Director of the Program in Regenerative Medicine, Director of Research in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery, and has been name Professor, by Courtesy, in the Department of Bioengineering, and Professor, by Courtesy, Department of Materials Science and Engineering. Dr. Longaker is Vice Chair of the Department of Surgery.

Michael Longaker’s extensive research experience includes the cellular and molecular biology of extracellular matrix with specific applications to the differences between fetal and post-natal wound healing, the biology of keloids and hypertrophic scars and the cellular and molecular events that surround distraction osteogenesis with respect to craniofacial development. Most recently, his research has focused on multipotent mesenchymal cells derived from adipose tissue and their applications for tissue repair, replacement and regeneration. He brings to Stanford his unique understanding of wound healing, fetal wound healing research, developmental biology and tissue engineering.

Dr. Longaker is a member of all the major academic surgery societies and was president of both the Society of University Surgeons (2007-08) and the Plastic Surgery Research Council (2006-07). He is one of a handful of surgeons elected into the American Society for Clinical Investigation, Association of Physicians, and the prestigious Institute of Medicine of the National Academies. To date, he has over 1175 publications and numerous federal grants to support his research.