Current Research and Scholarly Interests
Dr. Lorenz graduated from the University of Michigan School of Medicine. He then completed the General Surgery Residency Program at UCSF. This program included five clinical years in surgery and three years in a research fellowship in the UCSF Fetal Treatment Center with Drs. Michael Harrison and N. Scott Adzick. The research fellowship emphasized both development of novel fetal surgical techniques and understanding the biology of scarless fetal wound healing. Next, he completed the residency program in Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery at UCLA, with an emphasis on reconstructive, cosmetic, and microsurgery. Lastly, he completed the Craniofacial Surgery Fellowship at the Lucile Packard Childrens Hospital and the Stanford University Hospital.
Dr. Lorenz then joined the full-time academic faculty at UCLA as Assistant Professor in the Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. He initiated and developed a research program that investigated the molecular regulation of scarless skin wound healing. His research also focused on the biology of fat-derived stem cells and their use for tissue engineering. He was the first UCLA Plastic Surgery faculty member to be awarded a research grant from the NIH, which he received in the field of scarless wound healing. He was Director of the Gonda Wound Treatment Center, which treated patients with refractory wounds. He was promoted to Associate Professor shortly before leaving UCLA in 2001.
Dr. Lorenz is a Professor in the Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery. His clinical interests are in craniofacial surgery, pediatric plastic surgery, reconstructive surgery, and cosmetic surgery. He is certified by the American Board of Surgery and by the American Board of Plastic Surgery. He is a member of the California Society of Plastic Surgeons, the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, and the Plastic Surgery Research Council.
Dr. Lorenz directs the Scarless Skin Repair Laboratory in the Hagey Laboratory for Pediatric Regenerative Medicine. His group is studying mechanisms underlying scarless skin healing, including the interactions of fetal and adult keratinocytes and fibroblasts in the TGF-ß system. His group is also investigating the function of progenitor cells during repair, and the translational use of fat-derived stem cells in chronic wound therapy and tissue engineering.
