2026 H. Paul Ehrlich Rising Star, Kanhaiya Singh, PhD, from McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine, University of Pittsburgh is the recipient of the Ehrlich award entitled “Epigenetic Basis of Diabetic Wound Healing Impairment."

Dr. Singh stated: “This award will allow me to facilitate the presentation and scientific discussion of my work to renowned wound healing clinicians and scientists. The main goal is to receive peer critiques about my research approach and to begin collaboration to address the epigenetic pathology of diabetic wounds. Scientific interactions with others examining critical questions related to the epigenetic basis of diabetic wound healing impairment will help me formulate novel hypotheses to be tested in my future intramural and extramural grants.“ 

Congratulations Kanhaiya!



Pictured: 2026 Ehrlich Rising Star, Kanhaiya Singh, PhD

The Wound Healing Foundation is delighted to host Mateusz S. Wietecha, DMD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Department of Oral Biology, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois Chicago as the 5^th Annual H. Paul Ehrlich Rising Star Award recipient. Join us to hear insights on Dr. Wietecha's research and future directions in diabetic immunology and chronic inflammation.



When asked, Mateusz said "Wound healing is one of the most complex processes in the human body, where many thousands of cells have to communicate with one another across space and time. This tightly controlled intercellular communication is critical for successful repair, but scientists have thus far only been able to observe the healing process in limited snapshots. Our research attempts to study wound healing as a complex, dynamic system of interconnected cellular networks that change in space and in time. We do this work using cutting-edge sequencing tools (genomics) and evolving computational resources (bioinformatics), by integrating published datasets and generating new datasets of wounds that heal with a scar (in healthy skin),wounds that heal faster and with minimal scarring (in oral mucosa), and wounds that heal slowly (in diabetic skin). With this holistic, systems-level comparative approach, we hope to identify key cellular and molecular drivers that control essential aspects of the wound healing cascade, and we hope to identify powerful switches that we can tune to achieve better healing outcomes."

Dr. Wietecha additionally stated: “This award will absolutely help me as an early-career investigator, and it will go far to establish my academic credentials when it comes to applying for tenure. Furthermore, I foresee this award opening doors toward expanding my professional network in the wound healing research and advocacy communities.” 



Congratulations Mateusz! 

Pictured: Mateusz S. Wietecha, DMD, PhD, Ehrlich Rising Star Recipient 2025