David M. Young, M.D., Professor of Surgery
 
I am primarily interested in the mechanisms and treatments of normal and abnormal wound healing.

The role of heat shock proteins, homeobox genes, and hypoxia in cutaneous wound healing-Principal Investigator.

The effects of manipulating of hypoxia inducible proteins, homeobox genes, and heat shock proteins in wound repair are presently under investigation. In vitro and in vivo models of wound repair are used to study the effects of induction and blockage of these proteins on normal and abnormal healing. Expression of many of these proteins is altered in conditions of poor wounds heal ing as found in patients with diabetes. I hope to understand how these proteins interact during wound healing and to develop novel methods to improve healing.

My research is conducted in the UCSF Surgical Research Laboratory at SFGH. The research is currently funded by a RO-1 grant “Diabetes, Hypoxia Inducible Factor-1, and Delayed Wound Healing” from the NIH-NIGMS.

The Integrated Soft Tissue Infection Service at SFGH

Over 400 patients per month are treated in this specialty clinic dedicated to soft tissue infections and wound healing. I am conducting investigator-initiated and industry-initiated clinical studies on the pathophysiology of soft tissue infections, epidemiological microbiology, and antimicrobial therapies in this cohort of patients.