Geoffrey Gurtner

Department Head, Surgery

Professor, Surgery

Professor, Biomedical Engineering

Member of the General Faculty

Member of the Graduate Faculty

Primary Department

Surgery

Department Affiliations

Surgery

BIO5 Institute

Contact

(520) 626-7754

gurtner@arizona.edu

Work Summary

A general and plastic surgeon, Dr. Gurtner was previously the Johnson and Johnson Professor of Surgery and Bioengineering (by courtesy) and Materials Science (by courtesy) at Stanford University. Dr. Gurtner is the author of over 300 peer-reviewed publications and is an Editor for two major textbooks in the field: Grabb & Smith’s Plastic Surgery and Plastic Surgery. Dr. Gurtner was awarded the James Barrett Brown Award in both 2009 and 2010 and has been named “researcher of the year” by the ASPS, AAPS and numerous other professional organizations. Dr. Gurtner runs an NIH and DoD funded laboratory examining how physical stimuli (mechanical and chemical) alter the human response to injury. This has led to the development of new technologies for which Dr. Gurtner has received 30 issued patents and over 100 patent applications. Dr. Gurtner has founded several venture backed start-up companies, including Neodyne Biosciences (www.neodynebio.com) and Arresto Biosciences, acquired by Gilead (NASDAQ:GILD) in 2011. Dr. Gurtner was also a founding partner at Tautona Group (www.tautonagroup.com), an early stage life science fund that has created novel biomedical technologies that have been sold to industry leading companies, such as Allergan (NYSE:AGN), Novadaq (NASDAQ:NVDQ), and Acelity/KCI (San Antonio, TX).

Research Interest

Dr. Gurtner graduated from Dartmouth College and earned his medical degree at the University of California, San Francisco. He completed his internship and surgical residency at Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, followed by a plastic surgery residency at the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at NYU Medical Center and a fellowship in oncologic microsurgery at the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. Dr. Gurtner is internationally recognized as a highly accomplished clinician and prolific researcher, author, inventor and entrepreneur. He has been awarded more than $27 million in federal research funding and holds 35 patents. He also has founded three venture capital-backed life sciences companies. “Research that never gets into the real world has limited impact, and making an impact requires translating research into real-world applications,” Dr. Gurtner said. “I look forward to contributing to an academic department of surgery that is already providing outstanding clinical care and education and is poised to become an engine to accelerate progress in the field of surgery globally through innovations in patient care, early-stage clinical trials, cutting-edge translational research, and eventually, startup creation and commercialization. I am by nature a builder, and I can’t think of a better place to help build a transformative department of surgery than at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson.” Dr. Gurtner has authored or co-authored 345 peer-reviewed articles and nearly 50 book chapters, and he has edited the two major textbooks in his field. He is the immediate past board president of the Wound Healing Society, the premier scientific organization focused on wound healing.

Geoffrey Gurtner