Dr. Rubin’s translational research efforts are featured in the current issue of Pitt Med Magazine. With DOD funding, Dr. Rubin continues to lead transformative work with injured soldiers and veterans, and is currently recruiting subjects for a new clinical trial for craniofacial soft tissue reconstruction: Autologous Fresh Fat Grafting Followed by Autologous Cryopreserved Fat Grafting, NCT06747715.
The full PittMed article is available here:
Overheard: Ronald Strang’s muscle memories | Pitt Med Magazine | University of Pittsburgh
Excerpt: Nearly 16 years ago, then-Sgt. Strang was leading a squad of United States Marines on a routine foot patrol through a village in Afghanistan when a roadside bomb exploded and destroyed most of the muscle in his left thigh. After multiple operations, he still walked with a cane. He volunteered for a U.S. Department of Defense–sponsored trial at Pitt to try to improve his mobility—and his job prospects.
In 2011, Rubin, chair of plastic surgery at Pitt, surgically excised scar tissue from Strang’s disfigured thigh and placed into the void a sheet of extracellular matrix, or ECM, developed by Badylak’s team at the McGowan Institute. As the biomaterial broke down, it released natural signaling molecules that promoted new muscle and blood vessel growth. Soon after the operation, Strang could stand, walk and run again.