About Us

Dr. Geoffrey C. Gurtner is the Chair of the Department of Surgery & Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Arizona. A general & plastic surgeon, Dr. Gurtner was previously the Johnson & Johnson Professor of Surgery & Bioengineering (by courtesy) & Materials Science (by courtesy) at Stanford University. Dr. Gurtner is the author of over 300 peer-reviewed publications and is an Editor for two major textbooks in the field: Grabb & Smith's Plastic Surgery & Plastic Surgery. Dr. Gurtner was awarded the James Barrett Brown Award in both 2009 & 2010 and has been named “researcher of the year” by the ASPS, AAPS & numerous other professional organizations. Dr. Gurtner runs an NIH & DoD funded laboratory examining how physical stimuli (mechanical & chemical) alter the human response to injury. This has led to the development of new technologies for which Dr. Gurtner has received 30 issued patents and over 100 patent applications. Dr. Gurtner has founded several venture backed start-up companies, including Neodyne Biosciences (www.neodynebio.com) & Arresto Biosciences, acquired by Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) in 2011. Dr. Gurtner was also a founding partner at Tautona Group ( www.tautonagroup.com ), an early stage life science fund that has created novel biomedical technologies that have been sold to industry leading companies, such as Allergan (NYSE:AGN), Novadaq (NASDAQ:NVDQ), and Acelity/KCI (San Antonio, TX).

Golan is an infectious disease specialist whose research focuses on hospital-acquired infections, antibiotic resistance, MRSA, C. difficile infections, invasive fungal infections, and hospital epidemiology. He is a graduate of the Hadassah School of Medicine at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, Israel. He completed a medicine residency & Infectious Diseases fellowship at the Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, followed by a transplant ID fellowship & Masters in statistics & modelling at TUSM.

Dennis Orgill, M.D., Ph.D. is a Professor of Surgery who specializes in complex adult reconstructive surgery at Boston, MA. Dr. Orgill grew up in northern California & studied Bioengineering at UC Berkeley. He then joined the Harvard-MIT Health Sciences & Technology program as a graduate student where he worked with Dr. Ioannis Yannas at MIT & Dr. John Burke at the Shriners Burn Hospital on developing an artificial skin for burn victims. Today, this technology is the leading skin replacement method used throughout the world and is the core product of Integra LifeSciences Corporation. Dr. Orgill completed medical school at HMS & residencies in surgery & plastic surgery.

Dr. Orgill joined has an active practice in reconstructive plastic surgery while developing relationships with other surgical specialties. Has directed an ACS Verafied Burn Unit 8 years, the Vice Chairman for Quality Improvement in the Department of Surgery for 5 years and is now the Medical Director of a Wound Care Center in Boston. This is a collaborative effort between Plastic Surgery, Vascular Surgery, Orthopedics, Podiatry & Infectious Disease. He has served on numerous national committees' including currently the Chair of the ASPS/PSF Annual Meeting Committee from 2019 - 2022. He has been a Board Member of the Hidradenitis Suppurativa Foundation & has been on the Board of Directors of the Wound Healing Society. He is a co-author on over 350 publications listed in PubMed & has received numerous research grants. His research is focused on working to reconstruct tissues while minimizing donor site complications.

Dr. Kirsner is Chairman and the endowed Harvey Blank Professor in the Dr. Phillip Frost Dermatology in the Department of Dermatology & Cutaneous Surgery & Professor of Public Health Sciences at the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine. He is Chief of Dermatology at the University of Miami Hospital & Clinics and Jackson Memorial Hospital & directs the University of Miami Hospital Wound Center. Dr. Kirsner received his undergraduate degree from Texas A&M University, his medical degree from the University of Miami and a PhD in epidemiology from the University of Miami, after he completed his clinical training. His clinical training included internal medicine, a clinical & research fellowship in wound healing & dermatology at the University of Miami. His research interests include Wound Healing & Skin Cancer Epidemiology. Dr. Kirsner serves as one of 3 academic editors for the journal Wound Repair & Regeneration and on the editorial boards for a number of other journals in dermatology & wound healing. Dr. Kirsner serves in national leadership positions in both Wound Healing & Dermatology, including being Vice President of the American Academy of Dermatology & serving on the Wound Healing Society Board of Directors. In addition to career development awards, foundation, industry sponsored funding & CDC funding, he currently leads or is part of a number of NIH funded grants. Independent of books, book chapters & abstracts, he has published over 550 articles.

Dr. Matthew Menard graduated summa cum laude, phi beta kappa & with departmental high honors from Middlebury College. He attended Harvard Medical School & received his general surgery training at the Massachusetts General Hospital & vascular surgery fellowship training at the Brigham & Women's Hospital. He is currently Co-Director of Endovascular Surgery & the Vascular and Endovascular Surgery Fellowship Director at the Brigham and Women's Hospital & is an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School. His clinical practice spans the gamut of vascular surgical disease, with a focus on chronic limb threatening ischemia (CLTI) & complex wound care.

Dr. Menard conceived and was a National Principal Investigator of the BEST-CLI Trial, an NIH-sponsored & FDA-endorsed randomized controlled trial comparing treatment efficacy, functional outcomes, cost & cost-effectiveness associated with open surgery vs endovascular therapy for patients with CLTI. The results were recently presented at the American Heart Association & published in the New England Journal of Medicine. Dr. Menard served as Chair of the Independent Data Monitoring Board for an ongoing gene therapy trial for patients with ischemic leg ulcers. He.is currently working to better elucidate the health economics of CLTI care globally.

Gregory Schultz, PhD, is Professor Emeritus of Obstetrics & Gynecology at the University of Florida where he served as the Director of the Institute for Wound Research for 32 years. Dr Schultz graduated with BS & PhD degrees in Biochemistry from Oklahoma State University then completed Postdoctoral research in Cell Biology at Yale University. A major focus of Dr Schultz's more recent research is on understanding the role that bacterial biofilms play in stimulating chronic inflammation that leads to highly elevated levels of proteases in wounds that impair healing in chronic wounds by destroying proteins including growth factors, receptors, and extracellular matrix proteins that are essential for healing. Dr. Schultz has co-authored over 420 scientific publications that have been cited over 26,00 times and served as President of the Wound Healing Society from 1999 to 2001, is a member of the Wound Healing Foundation Board of Directors, and served as a member of the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel from 2007 to 2010. He is a co-inventory on 36 patents & a cofounder of two successful biotechnology companies, and he was elected a Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors in 2021.