Surgery Receives ACS Surgical Adhesions Improvement Project Grant
August 11, 2025
Researchers in the Department of Surgery have received funding from the American College of Surgeons (ACS) through the Surgical Adhesions Improvement Project. The two-year $100,000 grant will support their project: Sustained release, intraperitoneal T-5224-hydrogel therapy for the prevention of abdominal adhesions.
“This grant will fund the next phase in an ongoing collaborative project, which explores application of a sustained release anti-JUN therapeutic for prevention of post-operative abdominal adhesion formation,” said Dr. Deshka Foster, one of the Co-PIs on the project.
Dr. Michael Longaker from the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery will be the Principal Investigator on the project. Drs. Dan Delitto and Foster from the Division of General Surgery will serve as CO-PIs alongside Eric Appel, PhD from the Department of Materials Science and Engineering.
The group previously identified JUN as a transcriptional master regulator of adhesion-forming fibroblasts and suppression of JUN signaling via intraperitoneal delivery of a small molecule inhibitor (T5224) prevented adhesion formation. In collaboration with the Appel laboratory, they encapsulated T5224 in a shear-thinning hydrogel (Foster et al., Sci. Transl. Med., 2025).
Dr. Michael Longaker
Dr. Eric Appel
Dr. Dan Delitto
Dr. Deshka Foster
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