The Plastic Surgery Foundation
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Grants We Funded

Grant applicants for the 2023 cycle requested a total of nearly $4 million dollars. The PSF Study Section Subcommittees of Basic & Translational Research and Clinical Research evaluated nearly 140 grant applications on the following topics:

The PSF awarded research grants totaling over $1 million dollars to support nearly 30 plastic surgery research proposals.

ASPS/PSF leadership is committed to continuing to provide high levels of investigator-initiated research support to ensure that plastic surgeons have the needed research resources to be pioneers and innovators in advancing the practice of medicine.

Research Abstracts

Search The PSF database to have easy access to full-text grant abstracts from past PSF-funded research projects 2003 to present. All abstracts are the work of the Principal Investigators and were retrieved from their PSF grant applications. Several different filters may be applied to locate abstracts specific to a particular focus area or PSF funding mechanism.

The Effects of Graded Densities of Lipoaspirate on Fat Graft

Principal Investigator
Alexes Hazen MD

Year
2008

Institution
New York University Medical Center

Funding Mechanism
Directed Research Grant

Focus Area
Tissue Engineering

Abstract
Autologous fat represents perhaps the ideal filler for use in aesthetic surgery. It is natural, abundant, easily harvested, and potentially permanent. In 1980, liposuction presented plastic surgeons with a fatty solution that could be easily harvested and refined for re-injection. Since that time, interest in fat grafting has grown exponentially. However, results to date have been conflicting and equivocal. Despite these results, fat grafting continues to be used for breast augmentation, facial and hand rejuvenation, scar revision, lip augmentation, buttock augmentation, as well as for a host of other aesthetic cases. Further studies of harvesting, processing, and lipoinfiltration techniques are needed to better understand the mechanisms underlying long term fat graft survival. Increased knowledge of this subject will help to improve aesthetic outcomes and will potentially decrease patient morbidity by limiting the number of procedures needed to reach a desired appearance.

Biography
Alexes Hazen graduated from Brown Medical School in 1996 and went on to Residency in the combined General Surgery/Plastic Surgery program at NYU. After completing Residency at NYU she did a one year Microsurgical Fellowship at NYU. In 2001 she began work as an Assistant Professor in Plastic Surgery at NYU and Bellevue Hospital. She is the Director of the NYU Aesthetic Center. In 2004 she became Chief of the Manhattan Veterans Administration in Plastic Surgery performing reconstruction on veterans. She has done research focused on lipoaspirate and developed an animal model to study lipoaspirate as well as an animal model to study radiation damage. Her previous PSEF and National Foundation Grant focused on her work in examining the mechanism by which lipoaspirate alters the environment in which it presents. She has done research on developing 3D animation and surgical simulation to help educate both patients and residents regarding surgical procedures. This grant will focus on the evaluation of surgical simulation and 3D animation to educate surgical residents in specific procedures.