Dr. Thomas Spaeter finished his doctoral degree (Dr. rer. nat.) with special honors at the Institute for Clinical & Experimental Surgery (Saarland University, Homburg, Germany) in 2016. He developed a novel pre-vascularization strategy for tissue implants by seeding them with so-called adipose tissue-derived microvascular fragments - biologically intact units of a microvasculature, which can easily be isolated from adipose tissue and can enhance implant vascularization upon transplantation. For one of his publications, Dr. Spaeter received the Young Investigator’s Award by the German Society of Surgical Research.