Biography

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Benjamin Levi, M.D., holds the Dr. Lee Hudson-Robert R. Penn Chair in Surgery and Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery and serves as Chief of the Division of General and Acute Care Surgery. He specializes in acute and reconstructive burn surgery and scar reconstructive surgery.

Certified by the American Board of Plastic Surgery and the American Board of Surgery, Dr. Levi joined the UT Southwestern faculty in 2020. Previously, he was Director of the Burn/Wound and Regenerative Medicine Laboratory and Associate Director of Burn Surgery Service at the University of Michigan.

Dr. Levi’s research interests, which are funded by the National Institutes of Health, the American College of Surgeons, and the Department of Defense, include stem cell biology, heterotopic ossification, muscle fibrosis, tissue regeneration, wound healing and repair, and burn reconstruction outcomes.

He is the author of more than 100 scholarly articles, including high-impact papers in Science Translational Medicine, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, and Nature Communications, as well as chapters in a number of textbooks, including Greenfield’s Surgery, Total Burn Care, Grabb and Smith’s Plastic Surgery, and Trauma. He has delivered presentations worldwide, held numerous invited professorships, and serves as a permanent editor and ad hoc editor for journals in his area of research.

Education

Other Post Graduate Training
Massachusetts General Hospital
Medical School
Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine (2005)
Internship
University of Michigan Health System (2006), General Surgery
Postdoctoral Fellowship
Stanford University (2011), Pediatrics & Medical Genetics
Residency
University of Michigan Health System (2013), Plastic & Reconstructive Surgery
Fellowship
Massachusetts General Hospital (2014), Surgical Critical Care

Research Interest

  • Bone Development
  • Bone Tissue Engineering
  • Fibrodysplasia Ossificans Progressiva
  • Heterotopic Ossification: Improving Early Detection and Treatment Strategies for Trauma-Induced and Genetic Forms of Heterotopic Ossification
  • Identifying Bone Progenitor Cells Responsible for Bone Development and Ectopic Bone
  • matrix biology
  • Muscle Fibrosis
  • stem cell fate
  • Wound Healing

Publications

Featured Publications LegendFeatured Publications

In vivo screening identifies SPP2, a secreted factor that negatively regulates liver regeneration.
Lin YH, Zeng Q, Jia Y, Wang Z, Li L, Hsieh MH, Cheng Q, Pagani CA, Livingston N, Lee J, Zhang Y, Sharma T, Siegwart DJ, Yimlamai D, Levi B, Zhu H, Hepatology 2023 Apr
Tourniquet-induced ischemia creates increased risk of organ dysfunction and mortality following delayed limb amputation.
Rowe CJ, Walsh SA, Dragon AH, Rhodes AM, Pak OL, Ronzier E, Levi B, Potter BK, Spreadborough PJ, Davis TA, Injury 2023 Mar
Control of craniofacial development by the collagen receptor, discoidin domain receptor 2.
Mohamed FF, Ge C, Hallett SA, Bancroft AC, Cowling RT, Ono N, Binrayes AA, Greenberg B, Levi B, Kaartinen VM, Franceschi RT, Elife 2023 Jan 12
Discoidin domain receptor 2 regulates aberrant mesenchymal lineage cell fate and matrix organization.
Pagani CA, Bancroft AC, Tower RJ, Livingston N, Sun Y, Hong JY, Kent RN, Strong AL, Nunez JH, Medrano JMR, Patel N, Nanes BA, Dean KM, Li Z, Ge C, Baker BM, James AW, Weiss SJ, Franceschi RT, Levi B, Sci Adv 2022 Dec 8 51 eabq6152
Neurovascular coupling in bone regeneration.
Qin Q, Lee S, Patel N, Walden K, Gomez-Salazar M, Levi B, James AW, Exp Mol Med 2022 Nov 54 11 1844-1849
TrkA+ Neurons Induce Pathologic Regeneration After Soft Tissue Trauma.
Cherief M, Negri S, Qin Q, Pagani CA, Lee S, Yang YP, Clemens TL, Levi B, James AW, Stem Cells Transl Med 2022 Oct
Macrophage TGF? signaling is critical for wound healing with heterotopic ossification after trauma.
Patel NK, Nunez JH, Sorkin M, Marini S, Pagani CA, Strong AL, Hwang CD, Li S, Padmanabhan KR, Kumar R, Bancroft AC, Greenstein JA, Nelson R, Rasheed HA, Livingston N, Vasquez K, Huber AK, Levi B, JCI Insight 2022 Sep
Acetabular Reaming Is a Reliable Model to Produce and Characterize Periarticular Heterotopic Ossification of the Hip.
Negri S, Wang Y, Li Z, Qin Q, Lee S, Cherief M, Xu J, Hsu GC, Tower RJ, Presson B, Levin A, McCarthy E, Levi B, James AW, Stem Cells Transl Med 2022 Jun
Neuron-to-vessel signaling is a required feature of aberrant stem cell commitment after soft tissue trauma.
Qin Q, Gomez-Salazar M, Cherief M, Pagani CA, Lee S, Hwang C, Tower RJ, Onggo S, Sun Y, Piplani A, Li Z, Ramesh S, Clemens TL, Levi B, James AW, Bone Res 2022 Jun 10 1 43
Telehealth and Burn Care: From Faxes to Augmented Reality.
Park C, Cho Y, Harvey J, Arnoldo B, Levi B, Bioengineering (Basel) 2022 May 9 5

Professional Associations/Affiliations

  • American College of Surgeons (2021)
  • Biomedical Engineering (2021-2023)
  • Center for Organogenesis, Regeneration and Trauma (2020)
  • Center for Organogensis, Regeneration and Trauma (2020)
  • Gene Development and Disease (2021-2023)
  • Grants Governance Committee (2020)
  • Research Advisory Committee (2020)
  • Society of University Surgeons (2021)