Dr. Ghahary works on the biology of wound healing, including burns and other non-healing wounds. He is researching a biological skin substitute for burn patients and ways to treat scarring. He is also working to develop a liquid skin material for use on non-healing wounds. Such a material would provide a scaffold for the patient’s skin to close and begin to heal the wound. Currently, his research is directed toward finding new strategies to deal with the non-healing pressure ulcers which are often seen in people with SCI.
Dr. Ghahary is a Professor in the Department of Surgery and Division of Plastic Surgery at the University of British Columbia. He also holds a joint appointment as an Associate Member of Dermatology and Skin Sciences at UBC. He is a Principal Investigator at ICORD, Director of the BC Professional Fire Fighters’ Burn and Wound Healing Research Group and a member of the active staff at Vancouver General Hospital. Dr. Ghahary attended the University of Ahwaz for his B.Sc. and the University of Tehran for his M.Sc. in public health. He completed both his Ph.D. and his Post-Doctoral Fellowship at the University of Manitoba.
Dr. Ghahary’s work will soon make it from bench to bedside: the results of his research will soon be used to treat patients directly. He has already developed a cream that decreases scarring for burn patients and those recovering from surgery. Another focus of his research is the type I diabetes; he has shown that blood sugar levels can be controlled by transplanting insulin-producing cells into a diabetic patient’s kidney, eliminating the need for insulin injections. The molecule IDO, utilized in this treatment as an immunosuppressant to protect these transplanted cells, could also lead to the development of a non-rejectable skin substitute.
