A Globally Renowned Wound Healing Program
The Miller School’s renowned wound-healing researchers played a leading role at the Wound Healing Society and Symposium of Advanced Wound Care Spring 2025 global conference.
At the recent Wound Healing Society and Symposium of Advanced Wound Care (SAWC) Spring 2025 annual meeting, researchers from the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine’s Dr. Philip Frost Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery played leadership roles, presented cutting-edge research findings and took home top honors.
Marjana Tomic-Canic, Ph.D., the William H. Eaglstein, M.D., Chair in Wound Healing, professor of dermatology and cutaneous surgery, vice chair of research and director of the wound healing and regenerative medicine research program at the Miller School, described the contributions her colleagues made to the conference, including her receiving the society’s 2025 Distinguished Service Award.
How has your department received such prominence in the Wound Healing Society and at its annual meeting?
Our department’s training, research, clinical care, service and community outreach have made it a globally renowned wound healing program. Wound healing research has a nearly four-decades-long record of excellence, dating to the mid-1980s, initially led by our former chair, Dr. William Eaglstein. Since then, our department has continued to lead basic, translational and clinical research in the field and service to the community.
For example, I served as a president of the Wound Healing Society, as well as on both the Board of Directors and the Executive Board, and many of my colleagues also have played important roles in its activities, including our current chair, Dr. Robert Kirsner, who is currently WHS president-elect. He has been co-chair of the SAWC conference for the past 25-plus years, and all these efforts have created an important legacy in this field of research. It continues to the next generation, which is the most important part of our contributions — inspiring trainees to stay in the field and build on this legacy.
Dr. Rivka Stone served as co-chair of this year’s program committee, which organized the meeting. She began as a research resident fellow in my lab. Since then, she has won many awards from the Wound Healing Society, and it is wonderful to see her rise among the leadership.
Another colleague, Dr. Irena Pastar, just completed her three-year leadership term on the Wound Healing Society Board of Directors. Previously, she also chaired the awards committee and was just named a 2027 WHS Program co-chair.
In all, more than 30 trainees and faculty participated in this year’s meeting. They delivered more than 20 presentations, highlighting the breadth and depth of our research.
How did your early-career researchers participate?
Their role was very strong. In addition to delivering presentations, two of them won important awards. This was a point of pride for our department.
Dr. Jelena Marjanovic received the Research Grant Award, a significant, one-year research funding given to a junior investigator on a peer-reviewed competitive basis. Jelena’s research project aims to investigate and compare molecular and cellular mechanisms in healing and non-healing venous leg ulcers.
Veronika Jurczuk, a graduate student in Dr. Ivan Jozic’s lab, won the Young Investigator Award. Dr. Jozic won the same award in 2018, when he was my fellow. It is wonderful to see the legacy of mentorship and training being paid forward, shaping the next generations. Veronika’s research project is developing a topical formulation for treatment of patients with chronic wounds.
What were the honors you received?
I received two. One was the 2025 Distinguished Service Award, which, presented biennially, recognizes individuals for their contributions to the growth and advancement of the Wound Healing Society. I had received the Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022, but, back then, the recipient did not give a talk. That has changed, so this time I was asked to give a talk that spanned both awards.
The title was “Rejected. Cancelled. Unstoppable. A Journey of Purpose and Service in Wound Healing Research” and was focused how colleagues in the field, including Drs. Eaglstein and Kirsner and many others, shaped my scientific journey with emphasis on how many trainees came out of our research program and continue to advance the field in many important ways.
The other recognition was being inducted into the inaugural class of Wound Healing Society Fellows. Others inducted from my department were Drs. Kirsner and Eaglstein. Most inductees are past presidents and have made other significant contributions. There is a lot of history in the Wound Healing Society, and the fellows are expected to continue in an advisory mode to the current leadership, supporting the society with our knowledge and experience.
Tags: dermatology, Dr. Irena Pastar, Dr. Ivan Jozic, Dr. Marjana Tomic-Canic, Dr. Philip Frost Department of Dermatology and Cutaneous Surgery, Dr. Rivka Stone, Dr. Robert Kirsner, wound healing