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.
Effects of Fat Graft Vascularization on Graft Take and Retention
Obinna Ezeamuzie MD
2012
New York University School of Medicine
Pilot Research Grant
Tissue Engineering
Autologous fat has the potential for being the ideal soft-tissue filler. It possesses a natural consistency, is easy and safe to harvest, readily obtainable and because it is autologous, antigenic and allergenic reactions are minimized. Nonetheless, fat grafting is imperfect, as it is limited by unpredictable survival and because of this unpredictable behavior clinicians are faced with uncertainty concerning the ultimate volume of the graft, so that overcorrection and re-transplantation may be necessary to achieve satisfactory results. At present the exact mechanisms that dictate fat graft survival and resorption remain relatively unclear. One potential mechanism that may be responsible for graft loss is the lack of adequate revascularization within the transplanted fat. This project aims to investigate the role of the graft itself in its vascularization and survival after transplantation. We postulate that autologous fat graft survival is critically dependent on survival of the intact vasculature surrounding the adipose microstructure. Furthermore, we believe that FDA-approved therapeutics targeting preservation of this vasculature during its hypoxic phase would result in more reliable and predicable outcomes following autologous fat grafting. Specifically, we plan to determine the patterns of vascularization of autologous fat following grafting (donor-site or recipient-site derived) and the specific contribution of an intact donor vascular network on survival using a novel transgenic murine model. Finally, we will investigate a rapidly translatable FDA approved therapeutic intervention that we expect will make autologous fat grafting a more reliable and predictable technique in clinical practice, hence leading to more widespread use.
Obinna Ezeamuzie, MD was raised in Kuwait. He subsequently relocated to the United States after high school and graduated Magna Cum Laude with a B.S. in biology from the University of Georgia. He then completed his medical training at The Medical College of Georgia. Following medical school, Dr. Ezeamuzie started a general surgery residency at Brookdale University Medical Center in Brooklyn, New York. At the completion of his second clinical year, he joined Dr. Ceradini's lab at New York University School of Medicine, where he is starting his second year studying autologous fat grafting techniques with goals of improving overall survival and graft take.