Michael Longaker

Deane P. and Louise Mitchell Professor
Director, Children’s Surgical Research
Department of Surgery
Stanford University School of Medicine
Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital

Dr. Michael T. Longaker joined the Stanford University School of Medicine on September 1, 2000 as Director of Children’s Surgical Research in the Department of Surgery, Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and the Lucile Salter Packard Children’s Hospital. In 2003, he was named the Deane P. and Louise Mitchell Professor. As Director of Children’s Surgical Research, Dr. Longaker has the responsibility to develop a children’s surgical research program in the broad areas of developmental biology, epithelial biology and tissue repair, and tissue engineering. Prior to joining Stanford, Mike was the John Marquis Converse Professor of Plastic Surgery and held the positions of Director of Surgical Basic Science and Director of Plastic Surgery Research at the Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery at the New York University School of Medicine.

Michael Longaker’s extensive research experience includes the cellular and molecular biology of extracellular matrix with specific applications to the differences between fetal and post-natal wound healing, the biology of keloids and hypertrophic scars and, most recently, the cellular and molecular events that surround distraction osteogenesis with respect to craniofacial development. He brings to Stanford his unique understanding of wound healing, fetal wound healing research, developmental biology and tissue engineering.

Dr. Longaker is the recipient of the American Society of Maxillofacial Surgeons and the Maxillofacial Foundation’s 1999 Dr. Bernd Spiessl Award. In 2000, Mike received the D. Ralph Millard, M.D. Investigator Award as co-author, PSEF Scholarship Contest and is a James IV Traveling Fellow. He is a member of the Society of University Surgeons, American Surgical Association and American Society for Clinical Investigation; currently, he serves as Treasurer for the Society of University Surgeons. To date, he has published over 750 publications and has 5 federal grants to support his research. He has recruited 5 faculty to the Children’s Surgical Research Program, all of whom are NIH funded.

Mike earned his undergraduate degree at Michigan State University, (where he played varsity basketball and was a member of the 1979 NCAA Men’s Basketball Championship Team) and his medical degree at Harvard Medical School. He completed his surgical residency at the University of California, San Francisco, a residency in Plastic Surgery at NYU and a craniofacial fellowship at UCLA. The majority of his research training took place while he was a Post Doctoral Research Fellow in the Fetal Treatment Program under Dr. Mike Harrison and in the laboratory of Dr. Michael Banda in Radiobiology, both at UCSF. In December 2003, Dr. Longaker earned his M.B.A. from University of California – Berkeley and Columbia University, in the inaugural class of their combined program.