PSEF Funded Program Recipients

The Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation is pleased to announce the recipients of PSEF funded research programs.

2007 National Endowment Grant Awards

The following investigators have been awarded the National Endowment Grant Award:

Investigator: Colleen McCarthy

• Project Title: "The Use of AlloDerm in Two-Stage, Tissue Expander/Implant Reconstruction"
• Institution: Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center Award
• Amount: $48,000

Investigator: Amy Alderman

• Project Title: "Breast Reconstruction Decision-Making & outcomes in Latinas & African-Americans"
• Institution: University of Michigan
• Award Amount: $50,000

Investigator: Kevin Chung

• Project Title: "A Cost-Utility Analysis Comparing Lower Limb Salvage Versus Amputation for Type III Fractures"
• Institution: University of Michigan
• Award Amount: $50,000

Investigator: Karol Gutowski

• Project Title: "Combining Human Pre-adipocytes and biological Scaffolds for Fat Engineering"
• Institution: University of Wisconsin
• Award Amount: $40,000

Investigator: David Sarwer

• Project Title: "Psychosocial and Physical Functioning Following Body Contouring Surgery"
• Institution: University of Pennsylvania
• Award Amount: $49,965

Investigator: Thomas Tung

• Project Title: "Combination Therapy for Limb Allograft Acceptance and Nerve Regeneration"
• Institution: Washington University
• Award Amount: $48,894

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2007 PSEF Research Fellows

Alison Snyder-Warwick, MD – PSEF/Fresh Start Fellowship

• The Role of Wnt Signaling and FGFR2 in Craniofacial Anomalies
• Washington University School of Medicine
• Sponsor: Keith Brandt, MD

Alexander Allori, MD – Lyndon Peer Research Fellow

• In Vitro Simultaneous Guided OPC & EPC Differentiation
• NYU Medical Center
• Sponsor: Joseph G. McCarthy, MD

Kia McLean, MD – PSEF Research Fellow

• Evaluation of Functional Outcome In Composite Tissue Allotransplantation
• University of Pittsburgh
• Sponsor: W.P. Andrew Lee, MD

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2007 PSEF Scientific Essay Contest Award Winners

Craig H. Johnson, MD, Chair of the Scientific Essay Contest Committee, and the Committee Members are pleased to announce the 2007 Scientific Essay Contest Awards.

This year eighteen applicants submitted essays to PSEF. From those essays, five entries were chosen, in four different categories, to receive awards.

Listed below are the winners and the title of their individual essay.

“The depth and substance of the work submitted by applicants this year is a great reflection on the commitment of these researchers and the specialty to advancing the science and art of plastic surgery,” states Dr. Johnson.

The Basic Science Essay category encompasses the spectrum of basic science research as it relates to the anatomy, physiology, and biology of plastic surgery procedures.

The Annual Bernard G. Sarnat, MD Awards

Junior
Jamie P. Levine, MD

• NYU Medical Center
• Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery
• Low-Dose Radiation Augments Vasculogenesis Signaling Through HIF-1 Dependent SDF-1 Induction

Award underwritten by Bernard G. Sarnat, MD

Clinical Research Awards

Clinical Research Essay Category covers essay content that includes patient-related conditions relative to plastic surgery practice.

Senior
Julia K. Terzis, MD, PhD

• Eastern Virginia Medical School
• Microsurgical Research Center
• Effect of Axonal Load on Free Muscle to the Face Function and Aesthesis

Junior
Oren M. Tepper, MD

• NYU Medical Center
• Institute of Reconstructive Plastic Surgery
• Defining Changes in Volumetric Distribution Following Breast Reduction Surgery through Three-Dimensional Imaging

Investigator Awards

The Investigator Category awards prizes to medical students, nurses, therapists and physicians other than plastic surgeons who have conducted research that has cross-over applicability to plastic surgery.

First Place
Arash Moradzadeh, MD

• Washington University School of Medicine
• Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• A Paradigm Shift from Sensory to Motor Nerve Grafting to Improve Nerve Regeneration

Award underwritten by the D. Ralph Millard Plastic Surgical Society

Art & Science Essay
The content of these essays must reflect the theory, history, ethics or socio-economic issues related to the art & science of plastic and reconstructive surgery.

Beth Aviva Preminger, MD, MPH

• New York Presbyterian Hospital – Weill Cornell Medical Center
• Division of Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery
• Plastic Surgery, Aesthetics, and Medical Professionalism: Beauty and the Eye of the Beholder

Award underwritten by Integra Foundation

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2007 PSEF Directed Research Program Announces Grants Awards

In January 2007, the PSEF Directed Research Committee, chaired by William Kuzon, MD, PhD, solicited formal research grant proposals that where designed to evaluate outcomes and the quality of life of patients in the United States following breast reconstruction with or without implants, or breast augmentation utilizing of any type of implant material. Specific areas of interest for research development include:

• Psychological impact of immediate vs delayed reconstruction
• Donor site morbidity in breast reconstruction
• Effects of radiation on outcome of breast reconstruction with expanders/implants
• Epidemiologic studies on factors influencing the use or availability of breast reconstruction after mastectomy

In October 2007, the Directed Research Committee reviewed the applications and is pleased to announce the following Investigator was awarded funding for his proposed research:

Dennis Deapen, MD, PhD

• University of Southern California
• Preventive Medicine
• Long-term Cancer Incidence and All Cause Mortality Among Breast Implant Patients

It is anticipated this project will run over the next twelve to twenty-four months. Once the project is completed the investigator will prepare manuscripts for publication in plastic surgery/medical journals.

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2007 PSEF Basic Research Grants: Basic Science Embraces Innovation

Part of the mission of the Plastic Surgery Educational Foundation is to encourage doctors to establish themselves on a dual-track of clinical practice and basic- or applied- plastic-surgery research. Over the past twenty-nine years, since the inception of the Basic Research Grants program, many seed projects and first-plastic-surgery-research-proposals have been funded.

A grantee whose application placed among the top-five scores during the Review process this year was invited to present their newest findings during the Scientific Session at Plastic Surgery 2007 in Baltimore.

The 2007 Basic Research Grants, whose investigators each received a monetary award of $4,000, focus on several innovative research paths, and will be conducted in the following laboratories.

Alexander C. Allori, MD

• NYU Medical Center
• Project:  Peripheral Blood OPC and EPC Tissue Engineering

Damon Cooney, MD

• SIU School of Medicine
• Project:  Hindlimb Allograft Immune Tolerance Induced by IL10/TGFbeta

Kevin Cross, MD

• Weill Cornell Medical College
• Project:  HO-I Gene Therapy for Pressure Ulcer Prophylaxis

Vijay S. Gorantla, MD

• The University of Pittsburgh
• Project:  The Role of Skin Adnexal Immune Privilege in Tolerance Induction to Limb Transplants

Francis P. Henry, MD

• Massachusetts General Hospital
• Project:  Real Time, In Situ Microimaging of Peripheral Nerve Injury

David Kawamura, MD

• Washington University School of Medicine
• Project:  The Effects of Modality Matching on Peripheral Nerve Regeneration

Petros Konofaos, MD

• Eastern Virginia Medical School
• Project:  Neurotubes vs. Grafts for Nerve Gaps in rats receiving FK506

Jamie P. Levine, MD

• New York University
• Project:  Radiotherapy for Revascularization and Reperfusion of an Ischemic Flap

Eric Chienwei Liao, MD

• Harvard Medical School
• Project:  Surgical Biomaterials as Substrates for Biofilm Formation

Bret Schipper, MD

• The University of Pittsburgh
• Project:  Adipose Stem Cells: A Distinct Population or Just Migratory Stem Cells

Stefan Schneeberger, MD

• The University of Pittsburgh
• Project:  Migratory Inhibitors for Local Immunosuppression in CTA

Bjorn Schonmeyr, MD

• Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center
• Project:  Synthesis of a Tissue Engineered Periosteum

Mario G. Solari, MD

• The University of Pittsburgh
• Project:  Immune Cell Trafficking After Hind Limb Transplantation

Jason A. Spector, MD

• Weill Medical College of Cornell University
• Project:  A Novel Approach for Improving Flap Tolerance to Ischemia: H2S

Rica Tanaka, MD

• NYU Institute of Reconstructive Surgery
• Project:  Adoptive Endothehal Progenitor Cell Therapy to Restore Vasculogenic Potential in Diabetes

Soner Tatlidede, MD

• Harvard Medical School, Plastic Surgery Research Lab
• Project:  Role of Innervation in The Metabolic Response of Skin to Injury

Oren M. Tepper, MD

• NYU Medical Center
• Project:  3D Imaging for Planning and Analysis in Aesthetic Breast Surgery

Oren M. Tepper, MD

• NYU Medical Center
• Project:  Multilineage Stem Cell Therapy for Diabetic Wounds

Vishal Thanik, MD

• New York University
• Project:  Targeted Gene Silencing Using siRNA to Improve Diabetic Wound Healing

Kallirroi Tzafetta, MD

• Eastern Virginia Medical School
• Project: Functional Microanatomy of the Facial Nerve

Jignesh Unadkat, MD

• The University of Pittsburgh
• Project:  Prevention of Chronic Rejection in Composite Tissue Allograft

Jonathan M. Winograd, MD

• Harvard Medical School, Plastic Surgery Research Lab
• Project:  Optimizing Tendon Repair Using Photochemical Tissue Bonding

PSEF and its Research and Education staff thank all the Basic Research Grants Reviewers who gave so generously of their time and effort in carefully evaluating all 55 proposals submitted, and selecting the above for funding as this year's PSEF Basic Research Grantees

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