Scott L. Hansen, M.D.

Biography

Dr. Scott Hansen joined the Department of Surgery faculty as an Assistant Professor in Residence in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery in July 2005 and is an active investigator in the Surgical Laboratory at San Francisco General Hospital.   Dr. Hansen was appointed Chief of the Division of Plastic Surgery at SFGH in August 2007.   He holds a joint appointment with the Department of Orthopedic Surgery.   In addition, he is the Chief of Hand and Microvascular Surgery in the Department of Surgery at UCSF and Co-director of the Hand and Upper Extremity Service at San Francisco General Hospital.   Dr. Hansen's clinical interests include Reconstructive Microsurgery (including head and neck, breast, upper extremity, and lower extremity reconstruction), general Reconstructive Plastic Surgery and Hand and Upper Extremity Surgery--both congenital and traumatic.   He is a graduate of Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS).   He participated in basic Science research throughout his 4 years at EVMS studying wound healing and peripheral nerve regeneration.   Dr. Hansen completed the combined General Surgery/Plastic Surgery residency at UCSF in 2005.    

Upon completion of 3 years of General Surgery, he completed a 3 year Post-doctoral Research Fellowship at UCSF.   During this time he was awarded a prestigious NIH NRSA Grant that supported his work on Heat Shock Proteins and Cutaneous Wound Healing.   In addition, he completed a Hand and Microvascular Surgery fellowship at UCLA.  

Dr. Hansen maintains an active basic science laboratory at San Francisco General Hospital with 2 post-doctoral fellows and several Medical Students.   His basic science interests include diabetic wound healing, fracture healing, limb development and hemangiomas.   He has collaborations with basic scientists in the areas of development, angiogenesis and the extracellular matrix.  In conjunction with David Young's Laboratory and under the direction of Nancy Boudreau, Dr. Hansen's lab is active in numerous primary and collaborative research projects:  

• Diabetic wound healing.   Evaluation of the effects of homeobox genes on normal and deficient (diabetic) wound healing; specifically, the group 3 homeobox genes which accelerate diabetic wound healing through a variety of mechanisms.
• Hemangioma and Homeobox gene expression.   Evaluation of the expression of homeobox genes in hemangiomas.   Development of both an in vitro and in vivo model to evaluate the development and regression of these vascular tumors.
• Fracture healing.   In collaboration with the Orthopedic Surgery Laboratory, Dr. Hansen's research group is  evaluating the expression of homeobox genes in stable vs. unstable bone fractures.   Investigation of diabetic bone healing as compared to normal bone healing.
• Nerve repair.   Development of  a nerve gap model to evaluate the effect of Hox genes on nerve growth and repair.
• Stem cell biology.   Evaluation of the contribution that stem cells have on adult wound healing.   This will be compared to diabetic wound healing.  

Dr. Hansen is also the Hand and Microsurgery editor for both the Annals of Plastic Surgery and ePlasty (on-line Plastic Surgery Journal).