Kate Bush

Dr. Subhadip Ghatak, is a core resident faculty member of the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine and an Associate Professor of Surgery at the School of Medicine, University of Pittsburgh. He has additional faculty appointments in Bioengineering and Cellular and Molecular Pathology. He is recognized for his contributions to regenerative medicine, particularly in the areas of cellular crosstalk in tissue repair and regeneration. His laboratory integrates extracellular vesicle biology, nanotechnology, and gene reprogramming to unravel mechanisms of chronic non-healing diabetic wounds.
Dr. Ghatak has advanced the fundamental understanding of exosome-mediated cell-cell communication, microRNA regulation, and biofilm-driven wound chronicity. He has spearheaded federally funded research programs that have advanced the field of exosome biology, establishing how extracellular vesicles mediate cell–cell communication in wound healing and chronic disease. His group has uncovered mechanisms by which keratinocyte- and macrophage-derived exosomes regulate tissue repair and has developed innovative strategies to harness these vesicles as biomarkers and therapeutics.
Dr. Ghatak’s leadership extends across the extracellular vesicle field: he serves on the EV-TRACK task force, the NIH EV Interest Group, and several international EV societies, and is on editorial boards including Antioxidants & Redox Signaling and Frontiers in Medicine. He has received numerous awards, including the Wound Healing Society’s Young Investigator Award, multiple Excellence in Translational and Regenerative Science Awards, and the Mid-Career Faculty Award. In 2025, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Biology and Associate Fellow of the Wound Healing Society.

Professor: Richard Simman, MD, FACS, FACCWS

Board-certified plastic and reconstructive surgeon.
Dr. Simman is the founding president and chair of the American Board of Wound Medicine and Surgery, past president of the American College of Clinical Wound Specialists (ACCWS), past editor in chief of the journal of the college and sits on the editorial board of the Annals of Plastic Surgery, the Journal of Wound Care (UK) and IJWC.

He is Clinical Professor at the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology at Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine in Dayton, Ohio and Professor of Surgery at the Department of Surgery, Plastic surgery at University of Toledo College of medicine and Life Sciences, Toledo, Ohio.
Co-Director of the Wound Care Program at Jobst Vascular Institute/ProMedica Health System, Toledo, Ohio.

His background includes training in General Surgery at St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Center, Columbia University in New York, NY and a Plastic Surgery residency at Providence Hospital and Medical Centers in Southfield. In addition, he completed a Burn Fellowship followed by a Wound Healing/Cultured Keratinocytes Research Fellowship at the State University of New York at Stony Brook.

He has published over 200 peer-reviewed papers, editorials, abstracts, letters and book chapters.

David G. Armstrong is Distinguished Professor of Surgery and Neurological Surgery with Tenure at the University of Southern California. He has authored over 780 peer-reviewed research papers and 120 books or book chapters. He co-founded the Southwestern Academic Limb Salvage Alliance (SALSA) and leads USC's NSF-funded Center to Stream Healthcare in Place (C2SHiP). At C2SHiP, Dr. Armstrong finds himself at the nexus of consumer electronics and medical devices, exploring their integration for enhanced patient care.

Dr. Armstrong's has received numerous awards by national and international institutions including the Georgetown Distinguished Award for Diabetic Limb Salvage and the 2023 ISDF’s Karel Bakker Award. As the first podiatric surgeon to be named fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons, Glasgow, and the Founding President of the American Limb Preservation Society, he has made significant strides in his field. Dr. Armstrong is committed to ending preventable amputation within the next generation, a goal that he advances through fostering innovative interdisciplinary research, clinical practice, and advocacy.

Dr. Lisa Gould earned her MD, PhD in the Medical Scholars Program at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She has been practicing plastic and reconstructive surgery with an emphasis on difficult wound problems since 1999. She is an Affiliate Professor in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Physiology at University of South Florida and Clinical Associate Professor of Medicine at Brown University. Dr. Gould brought her passion for research and education in wound care to her clinical practice at South Shore Hospital and the South Shore Health Center for Wound Healing in Weymouth, Massachusetts. Now retired, she continues to serve multiple national organizations, including the Wound Healing Society, the Alliance of Wound Care Stakeholders, the National Pressure Injury Advisory Panel, the MAVEN project, the Wound Care Collaborative Community and the American College of Surgeons. A past president of the Wound Healing Society, she served on the executive board for more than 10 years. She currently serves on both the Education and Government Relations Committees. She is a recipient of the Wound Healing Society’s Distinguished Service and Lifetime Achievement Awards and the 2024 Robert Warriner III Award from the. Association for the Advancement of Wound Care. Her overarching goal is to improve patients' lives by preventing and healing wounds as fast as possible. She strongly believes this can be accomplished by providing basic wound education to all clinical providers and bringing a broad base of wound care stakeholders together to speak with one voice for the good of our patients.

Dr. Chandan K. Sen, PhD, FNAI, is a distinguished figure in regenerative medicine and wound care. He is an elected Fellow of the National Academy of Inventors. Dr. Sen is the inaugural Bartley Griffith Chair in Regenerative Medicine at the Dept. of Surgery and directs the McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine at the University of Pittsburgh. He also serves as the Associate Vice Chancellor for Life Sciences Innovation and Commercialization at the University of Pittsburgh. Dr. Sen's leadership focuses on advancing health care research vital to Pittsburgh's future, fostering collaborations with local and national partners, and facilitating the translation of scientific discoveries into practical applications for patients. With a career spanning over three decades, Dr. Sen's research has been instrumental in developing innovative solutions for tissue injury, regeneration, and infection management. Notable breakthroughs include pioneering technologies such as tissue nanotransfection and electroceutical infection management. He is the current vice-chair and chair-elect of the national NIH-funded Diabetic Foot Consortium. Dr. Sen's contributions have earned prestigious recognitions, including the 2018 Edison Award for Innovation and the 2016 Frost & Sullivan Award for New Product Innovation. With an extensive publication record, Dr. Sen’s work has been cited over 55000 times in the literature with current H-index 119.