Today’s Laboratory
We are located in a beautifully renovated, state-of-the-art laboratory on the 15th floor of the Thorn building at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) overlooking Boston, Harvard Medical School, and the Countway Library of Medicine. Our administrative space is located on the 3rd floor of Building B at BWH. Our laboratory has facilities for mathematical modeling, fabrication of collagen matrices, molecular biology analysis, cell culture, and access to small and large animal facilities. We also participate in several clinical trials.
We have assembled an incredibly able, articulate, and diverse group of researchers from around the world to help us design better wound care technologies for our patients. Together with our world-renowned collaborators we believe we have a terrific team with a superb track record to move projects forward.
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Dennis P. Orgill, M.D., Ph.D., Principal Investigator
Dr. Orgill has a background in research and technology transfer of tissue engineering and wound healing products. Dr. Orgill’s undergraduate work at U.C. Berkeley in bioengineering was followed by graduate work at MIT. Working with Dr. I.V. Yannas, at MIT, Dr. Orgill developed a collagen-glycosaminoglycan seeded matrix to treat full-thickness skin defects. At MIT, Dr. Orgill worked on the development of a peripheral nerve regeneration conduit and was actively involved in the scale-up and technology transfer of Integra®, first to Marion Laboratories and then to Integra Life Sciences.
Dr. Orgill obtained his M.D. at Harvard Medical School and then completed residencies in Surgery and Plastic Surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He now directs the Burn Unit at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is the Associate Chief of Plastic Surgery. He is on the Editorial Board of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and has advised many tissue engineering and wound healing corporations.
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Basic Research
Dr. Pietramaggiori completed his M.D. degree at the University of Padua in Italy and is currently the project leader on platelet studies and micromechanical force studies for the Wound Healing and Tissue Engineering Laboratory. He has a fascination with muscle regeneration and hopes to combine newly acquired expertise with the Padua group for tissue engineering of skeletal muscle. His work in our laboratory will serve as the basis of his Ph.D. thesis from the University of Padua.
Sandra Saja Scherer, M.D.
Dr. Scherer went to the Semmelweis University of Budapest and completed her medical degree at the University of Leipzig in Germany. She came to Boston with an interest in wound healing and tissue engineering. Her current projects include investigation of the vacuum assisted micromechanical force in wound healing, importance of circulating factors in wound healing in parabiosis studies, as well as studies of the impact of N-acetyl-glucosamine polymers on wound healing. Dr. Scherer’s interests include skin regeneration and scar improvement, especially in burn victims and complicated wounds.
Vishal Saxena, Ph.D.
Dr. Saxena completed his Ph.D. at MIT in June of 2005. He constructed and published the finite element model showing that micromechanical forces play an important therapeutic role in the efficacy of the Vacuum Assisted Closure (VAC®, KCI, San Antonio, Texas) device. He has recently completed gene-chip analysis of the stretched rat ear project, and hopes to complete gene chip analysis from human tissues treated with the VAC® device later this year.
Jeffrey Rentz, M.D.
Dr. Rentz graduated from the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He trained in General Surgery at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. During his residency, he studied myocardial angiogenesis and gene therapy. He was awarded the top paper at the 2002 Society for Thoracic Surgeons Meeting for clinical work on Esophagectomy outcomes. After completing one year of a Cardiothoracic Surgery Fellowship at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, he joined our lab to study wound healing. His principal interest in the lab is the study of the effects of mechanical forces on tissue.
Stephanie Kwei, M.D.
Dr. Kwei has an M.D. from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York. She spent two years working with Dr. Folkman on angiogenesis and she is currently a resident in the combined Harvard Plastic Surgery Program. She is also working on angiogenesis studies from humans treated with the VAC® device.
Bart J. Kane, M.D., Ph.D.
Dr. Kane completed his M.D. degree at Harvard Medical School and his Ph.D. degree in mechanical engineering at Stanford University where he applied microelectomechanical systems (MEMS) technology to the development of a high resolution robotic and laparoscopic tactile sensor. He is currently a resident in the General Surgery Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. He has also spent two years working with Dr. Mehmet Toner at the Center for Engineering in Medicine. During that time he developed a microfluidic array containing living primary hepatocytes for use in high through-put liver toxicology and hepatitis c studies. He has designed and built our micro-processor controlled tension device that can apply pre-determined tensile waveforms to tissues with controlled amplitude and frequency.
Arin Greene, M.D., MMSc
Dr. Greene has an M.D. from the University of Illinois and completed the clinical effectiveness master’s program at HMS. He spent 3 years working with Dr. Judah Folkman studying angiogenesis and tissue regeneration and is now a resident in the combined Harvard Plastic Surgery Program. He is now doing angiogenic studies of patients with the VAC® device.
Evan S. Garfein, M.D.
Dr. Garfein completed his M.D. degree at Columbia and then came to Boston for surgical residency where he is now in the combined Harvard Plastic Surgery Program. He has started three companies in medical information and technology. He spent two years working with Dr. Richard Mulligan on gene therapy applications. He designed and is the project leader for experiments investigating the role of autologous bone-marrow derived stem-cells on wound healing. He has shown that application of stem cells isolated by florescent-activated cell sorting (FACS) as the side population can improve wound healing in the diabetic mouse model.
Rodney Chan, M.D.
Dr. Chan is a graduate of Harvard Medical School and a general surgery resident at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. His research background has focused on ischemia-reperfusion work with Dr. Herbert Hechtman and Dr. Francis D. Moore, Jr. In collaboration with Dr. C. Robert Valeri, Dr. Chan determined that out-dated platelets retain to a large degree a rich profile of growth factors. Dr. Chan is active in both our platelet and stem-cell projects.
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Clinical Research
Dr. Parrett completed his MD degree at Columbia University and now is a resident in the combined Harvard Plastic Surgery Training Program. He has completed a study on the wound healing of distal tibia open fractures and is now focusing on the optimal treatment of 4th degree lower extremity burns.
Evan Matros, M.D., MMSc
Dr. Matros is a resident in the General Surgery Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and has recently completed the clinical effectiveness master’s program at HMS. His background in clinical trail design and statistical analysis has been invaluable in several on-going studies.
Lauren R. Bayer, PA-C.
Ms. Bayer conducts several clinical studies on wound healing and has spoken at several wound healing forums throughout the world. She has been a PA at Brigham and Women’s Hospital for 20 years. Her current focus is in the optimal treatment of chronic wounds.
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Collaborators
I.V. Yannas, Department of Mechanical Engineering, M.I.T.
Peter So, Department of Mechanical Engineering, M.I.T.
Donald Ingber, M.D., Ph.D., Children’s Hospital Boston
Sui Huang, M.D., Ph.D., Children’s Hospital Boston
Arja Kaipainen, M.D., Ph.D., Children's Hospital Boston
David Fischer, M.D., Ph.D., Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
Amy Wagers, Ph.D., Joslin Diabetes Center
Issac Kohane, Children’s Hospital
C. Robert Valeri, Ph.D., West Roxbury VA Medical Center
M.A. Konnerding, Johannes Gutenberg-Universitat Mainz
Steven Mentzer, M.D., Brigham and Women’s Hospital
David Soybel, M.D., Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Herbert Hechtman, M.D., Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Karl Breuing, M.D., Brigham and Women’s Hospital
Quentin Eichbaum, M.D. Ph.D., Massachusetts General Hospital
Raphael Lee, M.D., Sc.D., University of Chicago
Florin Despa, Ph.D., University of Chicago
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Past Research Fellows
Perry Liu, M.D.
Benjamin Phillips, M.D.
Dae-Hyun Lew, M.D.
Ho Kwon, M.D.
Horacio Mayer, M.D.
Hoon-Bum Lee, M.D.
Christine Park, M.D.
Charles Butler, M.D.
Christian Correia, M.D.
Mark Barlow, M.D., S.M.
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L. Scott Ritterbush, S.M.
Riaz Agha, M.D.
Michael Alperovich, B.S.
Stacy Porter, A.B., M.Phil
Vikram Sharma
Ho-Jik Yang, M.D.
Jennifer Neuwalder, M.Arch
Valdas Macionis, M.D.
Paul Gigante, B.S.
Smith Sonni, B.A. |
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