Academic Contributions

RESEARCH FOCUS AND INTERESTS:

IRB #47596 “Measuring Volume of the Breast Following Surgery and Radiation” – a study that is using 3D imaging software and tomograms to measure the volume of breasts before and after radiation and surgical management of breast cancer.  The goal is to quantify the breast surface area and volume changes that occur with radiation therapy.

IRB #52156 “The Effects of Exogenous Hormones on the Breast” – co-PI on a collaborative study looking at the macroscopic and molecular phenotypic effects of long term exogenous hormone therapy on breast tissue, focusing on transgender patients.  This study is likely to add valuable insight into breast health and risk factors within this underserved and vulnerable patient population.

IRB # 50442 “Thermal Imaging of Soft Tissue Anatomy in Reconstructive Surgery” – a study that will use a long wave infrared thermal imaging camera to characterize soft tissue flaps and angiosomes before, during and after soft tissue flap reconstruction.  The goal is to find novel uses for thermal imaging in soft tissue reconstruction, such as flap monitoring and flap “stress testing.”

IRB proposal submitted: #52823 “Tissue Expansion in Breast Reconstruction Without Drains” – co-PI on a study designed to establish the feasibility of using a new tissue expander containing a fluid collecting reservoir in lieu of using drains with implant-based breast reconstruction.

IRB proposal under development: #52167 “10 Year Experience in Reconstructive Surgery” – a retrospective and prospective effort to build Cedars-Sinai’s first reconstructive surgery and flap registry.

INVITED LECTURES AND PRESENTATIONS:

 “Growth Hormone and Epidermal Growth Factor Up-regulate Specific Sodium-Dependent Glutamine Transport Systems in C2BBe1,” presented at the Summer 2001 FASEB Meeting on Transporter Biology in Tucson, Arizona (July 23, 2001)

“Growth Hormone and Epidermal Growth Factor Alter the Relative Contribution of Intestinal Glutamine Transport Systems,” presented at the Clinical Congress of the American College of Surgeons 87th Surgical Forum in New Orleans, Louisiana (October 8, 2001)

“Growth Hormone and Epidermal Growth Factor Together Enhance Amino Acid Transport Systems B0,+ and A in Remnant Small Intestine after Massive Enterectomy,” presented at the 36th Annual Association for Academic Surgery Meeting in Boston, Massachusetts (November 7, 2002)

“Predicting Success After Gastric Bypass: Role of Psychological and Behavioral Factors” presented at the 60th Annual Central Surgical Association Meeting in Toronto, Ontario (March 20, 2003)

“Use of Alloderm in First Webspace Reconstruction” presented at the Southern California Chapter of the American College of Surgeons Meeting in Santa Barbara, California (January 21, 2007)

“Immediate Thumb Reconstruction With Great Toe Transfer After Acute Injury,” presented at the ASPS Senior Resident Conference in Washinton D.C. (January 31, 2008)

“Immediate Thumb Reconstruction With Great Toe Transfer After Acute Injury,” presented at the 25th Annual Bernard G. Sarnat Plastic Surgery Conference in Los Angeles, CA (June 28, 2008)

“Acute Thumb Reconstruction With Great Toe Transfer,” presented at the North Carolina Society of Plastic Surgeons Annual Meeting in Chapel Hill, NC (September, 2008)

BIBLIOGRAPHY / PUBLICATIONS:

  • Research Papers – Peer Reviewed:
  1. McNamee, SG, Ober, CK, Jelinski, LW, Ray, E, Xia, Y and Grubb, D, “Toward Single Fiber Diffraction of Spider Dragline Silk from Nephila clavipes,” in Silk Polymers: Materials Science and Biotechnology, ACS Symp. Ser. 544 (Kaplan, D, Adams, WW, Farmer, B, and Viney, C, eds.) 176-184 (1994). [worked as lab assistant, maintained study animals and collected silk, helped run X-ray diffraction experiments in cyclotron]
  2. Xia, Y, Farquhar, T, Burton-Wurster, N, Ray, E and Jelinski, LW, “Diffusion and Relaxation Mapping of Intact Cartilage and Cartilage Explants Using MR Microscopic Imaging,” Reson. Med. 31: 273-282 (1994). [worked as lab assistant, maintained study animals and collected silk, wrote FORTRAN software for analyzing MR data]
  3. Simmons, A, Ray, E and Jelinski, LW, “Solid State 13C NMR of Nephila clavipes Dragline Silk Establishes Structure and Identity of Crystalline Regions,” Macromolecules, 27: 5235-5237 (1994). [worked as lab assistant, maintained study animals and collected silk, wrote FORTRAN software for analyzing MR data]
  4. Simmons, A, Ray, E and Jelinski, LW, “NMR Studies of Spider Dragline Silk,” Prepr., Am. Chem. Soc., Div. Polym. Chem. 35(2) 421-422 (1994). [worked as lab assistant, maintained study animals and collected silk, wrote FORTRAN software for analyzing MR data]
  5. Ray, EC, Landis, ME and Miller, VM, “Effects of Dietary L-arginine on Reactivity of Canine Coronary Arteries,” Med. 4(4): 211-217 (1999).
  6. Landis, ME, Ray, EC, Gloviczki, P and Miller, VM, “Effects of Dietary L-arginine on Structure and Function of Flow-Restricted Vein Grafts,” Vasc. Surg. 33(4): 829-839 (2001). [as student, collaborated with resident in performing surgery on study animals and in writing paper]
  7. Ray, EC, Avissar, NE, Vukcevic, D, Toia, L, Ryan, CK, Berlanga-Acosta J, and Sax, HC, “Growth Hormone and Epidermal Growth Factor Together Enhance Amino Acid Transport Systems B0,+ and A in Remnant Small Intestine after Massive Enterectomy,” Surg. Res. 113(2): 257-263 (2003). Selected for Year Book of Surgery; (Copeland, EM, ed.) Mosby. Manchester, U.K., September 2004.
  8. Ray, EC, Nickels, MW, Sayeed, S and Sax, HC, “Predicting Success After Gastric Bypass: Role of Psychological and Behavioral Factors,” Surgery 134(4): 555-563 (2003).
  9. Avissar, NE, Ziegler, TR, Toia, L, Gu, LH, Ray, EC, Berlanga-Acosta, J and Sax, HC, “ATB0/ASCT2 Expression in Residual Rabbit Bowel Is Decreased after Massive Enterectomy and Is Restored by Growth Hormone Treatment,” Nutr. 134: 2173-2177 (Sep 2004). [performed surgery on study animals and helped collect data]
  10. Ray, EC, Avissar, NE, Salloum, R, and Sax, HC, “Growth Hormone (GH) and Epidermal Growth Factor (EGF) Upregulate Specific Sodium Dependent Glutamine (Gln) Uptake Systems in Human C2BBe1 Cells,” Nutr., 135(1): 14-18 (Jan 2005).
  11. Ray, EC, Sherman, R, and Stevanovic, M, “Immediate Reconstruction of a Nonreplantable Thumb Amputation by Great Toe Transfer ,” Recon. Surg., 123(1): 259-267 (January 2009).
  12. Ray, EC, Mitchell, SL, Cordeiro, P “Miniature Negative Pressure Dressings on Forearm Donor Sites after Radial Forearm Flap Harvest: A Report of 10 Cases” Plastic and Reconstructive Surgery Global Open. (Accepted December 2017)
  13. Maas M, Howell AC, Gould DJ, Ray, EC. “The Ideal Male Nipple-Areola Complex” Annals of Plastic Surgery (2019).
  14. Patel, H, Arruarana, SV, Yao, L, Xiaojiang, C, Ray, EC, “Effects of Hormones and Hormone Therapy on Breast Tissue in Transgender Patients: A Concise Review,” Endocrine (2020).

Textbook Chapters

  1. Ray, EC, “Head and Neck Reconstructive Surgery” In: Multidisciplinary Care of the Head and Neck Cancer Patient (Ellie Maghami and Allen Ho, Eds.), Springer, 123-141, 2018. 
  2. Disa, J, Farhang, H, and Ray EC, “Delayed Tissue Expander Breast Reconstruction,” Chapter for Operative Techniques in Plastic Surgery, (Kevin Chung, Charles Thorne, Arun Gosain, et al., Eds.) in press. [contributed video and photographs for multimedia publication]
  3. Ray, EC, and Disa, J, “Scalp Reconstruction,” Invited Chapter revision for 2nd edition of Operative Plastic Surgery (Gregory R.D. Evans, Ed.), in press.
  4. Ray, EC, and Matros, E, “Head and Neck Reconstruction,” Invited Chapter revision for Jatin Shah’s 5th edition of Head and Neck Surgery and Oncology, in press.

Letters to the Editor:

  1. Ray, E, “Practice Surgery, Perform Operation” Rochester Democrat & Chronicle (May 1, 2004).

Reviews:

  1. Ray, EC, Avissar, NE, and Sax, HC, “Growth factor regulation of enterocyte nutrient transport during intestinal adaptation,” [Review], J. Surg. 183(2): 361-371 (2002).
  2. Ray, EC, Avissar, N, and Sax, H, “Methods Used to Study Intestinal Nutrient Transport: Past and Present,” [Review], Surg. Res. 108:180-190 (2002).
  3. Lehfeldt, M, Ray, EC, and Sherman, R, “MOC-PS(SM) CME Article: Treatment of Flexor Tendon Laceration. ” in Recon. Surg., 121(4) Supplement:1-12, (April 2008).
  4. Ray, EC, Wu, T, Nazarian-Mobin, S, Reinisch, J, and Urata, M, “Review of Options for Burned Ear Reconstruction” Craniofacial Surg. 21(4): 1165-9, (2010). 
  5. Ray, EC “Head and Neck Reconstructive Surgery,” Cancer Treat. Res., 174: 123-143 (2018).

Editorials:

  1. Ray, EC, “Gender-Affirming Phalloplasty: A First for Cedars-Sinai” Sutures Newsletter (January 2018).

Abstracts:

  1. Ray, EC, Landis, ME, and Miller, VM, “Effects of Dietary L-arginine on Reactivity of Canine Coronary Arteries,” poster presented at the International Symposium on Mechanisms of Vasodilation in Maastricht, Netherlands (July 1997).
  2. Ray, E, Sax, H, and Avissar, N, “Growth Hormone and Epidermal Growth Factor Upregulate Specific Sodium-Dependent Glutamine Transport Systems in C2BBe1,” poster presented at the Summer 2001 FASEB Meeting on Transporter Biology in Tucson, Arizona (July 2001).
  3. Salloum, R, Avissar, NE, Patel, S, Ray, EC, Hamilton, DE, and Sax, HC, “Modulation of epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor phosphorylation in hypoxic colon cancer cells in vitro” poster presented at the Society of Surgical Oncology 55th Annual Cancer Symposium in Denver, Colorado (March 2002).
  4. Brazio PS, Mascharak S, Ray EC, “Illicit Silicone Injections in Transgender Women: an Increasingly Visible Hazard” presented at the 68th California Society of Plastic Surgeons Annual Meeting, San Diego, CA (May 2018).