ASPS to Host First-of-Its-Kind Regenerative Medicine Summit
Miami, March 14-17, 2013

ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill. - To provide patients with more natural therapies in areas such as facial aging, breast augmentation, breast reconstruction, and wound healing, plastic surgeons are taking a leading role in a new frontier of medicine known as regenerative medicine. More than 125 plastic surgeons, physicians, industry and scientific experts will convene at the American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS) Regenerative Medicine Summit, March 14-17, 2013, in Miami, to discuss the current and future clinical impact of this area of medicine on cosmetic and reconstructive plastic surgery. Held at the Turnberry Isle Miami Hotel, the summit is the inaugural symposium of ASPS' newly formed Regenerative Medicine Task Force.

"Regenerative medicine holds great promise for the future of medicine, offering a world of possibilities," said Richard D'Amico, MD, ASPS Regenerative Medicine Task Force chair and summit co-chair. "With its ever-growing role in medicine, especially in plastic surgery, it will soon lead to more personalized treatment. This area of medicine has the potential to create a huge shift in the way we see the aging population, impacting both reconstructive and cosmetic surgery. It is the future of medicine."

Regenerative medicine involves the use of cells and scaffolds to generate the formation of new tissues. Currently, implants are used in many plastic surgery procedures, as well as, other medical treatments. However, regenerative medicine aims to generate natural substances such as fat, tissue, bone, nerves, blood vessels, and ultimately one day organs to use in a variety of cosmetic and reconstructive therapies such as wound repair, craniofacial surgery, facial rejuvenation and breast surgery, among others.

To meet the demands of this rapidly evolving field, the Society formed the ASPS Regenerative Medicine Task Force. The charge of the task force is to keep patients, regulators, and legislators up to date on plastic surgery's role in this arena, as well as, board-certified plastic surgeons abreast of advances and technologies that may be incorporated into their practices to better serve patients.

"Plastic surgeons have been leaders in the development and translation of regenerative therapies, and there are many examples of this in the current practice of the specialty," said Dr. D'Amico. "We will be discussing these innovations so that we can build technologies and techniques for future therapies."

Topics presented at the summit will include, but are not limited to:

• Adult (fat derived) stem cell therapies
• External energy sources to induce scarless healing
• Tissue and bone engineering for craniofacial defects
• Regenerative biomaterials to replace tissue, bone, organs in both aesthetic and reconstructive surgery
• Peripheral nerve regeneration
• Allogeneic (donated) tissue, tissue transplantation, and tissue engineering
• State of the art fat grafting for facial rejuvenation, breast augmentation and reconstruction
• Improving fat grafting outcomes through processing and additives