Research Strengths

Explore the research interests and current projects of our investigators.

Areas of Research

Operating room lights

Our faculty members conduct research on several aspects of surgical education. The Microsurgical Training Lab delivers advanced vascular and neural microsurgical training to residents and specialists from around the world.

Cancer

Our section houses the Maxillofacial Oncology and Reconstructive Surgery National Database (MORCOG), a data warehouse for head and neck cancer that allows surgeons and oncologists at partner institutions across the country to share data to improve treatment.

Human body diagram

Regenerative medicine is a new frontier in surgical reconstruction that has the potential to improve patients' quality of life. Efforts include ongoing studies to evaluate a novel osteo-inductive coating for biodegradable scaffolds, such as a vascularized mandible for use in reconstructive surgery. We completed construction of a cGMP clean room facility for the manufacture of human tissue to be used in FDA-approved clinical trials. We have the only certified cGMP facility at U-M, making it a huge research asset for tissue engineering.

Skull Graphic

We aim to improve the care of patients suffering with facial pain and TMJ disorders and have a quality assurance program to monitor our outcomes and offer surgery to those most likely to benefit. Our studies focus on improving quality of life through carefully chosen treatments. We have partnered with the chronic pain and fatigue research center to identify factors involved in facial pain conditions. We study new technologies including neurophysiological monitoring to reduce the risk of facial nerve injuries during surgery.

Programs & Investigators