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Department of Surgery Department of Surgery
  1. Department of Surgery
  2. Divisions
  3. Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns & Acute Care Surgery
  4. Research

Research

Our clinical and research faculty are engaged in a robust research program in clinical outcomes and basic sciences/ translational research. Our multidisciplinary approach benefits from collaboration with colleagues from several departments across the UC San Diego School of Medicine.

Basic Science

The UC San Diego Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns and Acute Care Surgery Research Laboratory is focused on studying the inflammatory response to injury. Our NIH-funded research group consists of an integrated team of surgeon-scientists and PhD researchers who share a common goal of performing cutting-edge basic science and translational studies. We strive to perform "bench to bedside" research by utilizing cellular, molecular, and genetic techniques to better understand the human injury response with the goal of improving outcomes in patients following severe injury and infection.

Clinical Research

The UC San Diego Division of Trauma, Surgical Critical Care, Burns and Acute Care Surgery is committed to providing high quality, efficient healthcare. Our clinical research efforts utilize both institution databases and large-scale data sources to ask clinical relevant questions to improve the care of our patients. Our faculty actively participate in, and have been leaders of, multi-center studies aimed at addressing highly relevant clinical topics that have helped shape Trauma and Critical Care management internationally.

Eliceiri Laboratory

The Eliceiri Lab uses state of the art analytical and genetic technologies for the analysis of immune cells that mediate the resolution of the inflammation response. The neural regulation of immune cells is a mechanism that bridges inputs from the brain with the inflammation response-a resolution mechanism that is dysfunctional in the cancer and following severe injury. With similarities to the neuronal synapse, the exosome regulation of immune cells is a mechanism that releases inflammatory factors from epithelial cells and macrophages into the circulation that act upon distal immune cells.