Most people who undergo weight loss surgery are ready to forget about the fat they shed, and move on with their lives. Dr. J. Peter Rubin has built his career on making something of it.

Steve Mellon, Post-Gazette For Dr. Peter Rubin, an outside-of-work passion is cooking. Here he's making bananas foster in the kitchen of his Fox Chapel home. More profiles Today, Your Health presents its annual Dozen Making A Difference, focusing on 12 people in our community who are working to improve our health, our well-being and our futures. Visit our Dozen Making a Difference index page for links to the other profiles.

As a surgeon, Rubin is the director of the Life After Weight Loss Program at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He performs weight loss surgery, and then afterward helps patients contour their loose skin to restore a more normal body shape.

But in a rapidly evolving field, Rubin has discovered that there is more to plastic surgery than helping people lose weight. Researchers including Rubin have found that fat tissue is a rich source of adult stem cells, which can be induced to turn into other types of tissue, or introduced into a site of injury and serve in a healing capacity. Rubin hopes the fat cells can eventually be used in the treatment of human diseases, and is especially interested in using them to repair breasts after breast cancer surgery.

"All of my activities are interrelated," he said. "If I were only doing research, I wouldn't have the perspective of working with patients. If I was only doing clinical work, I would be missing an opportunity to come up with new innovations in the lab."

Original and resourceful, Rubin cooks, sculpts and paints in his spare time, a more artistic form of his clinical work.

He came to Pittsburgh from Boston in 2002 with his wife after 14 years in that city, and settled in Fox Chapel. In just over two years, he has helped establish Pittsburgh at the forefront of this small field, created the first clinical fellowship in body contouring after weight loss, and, just six months ago, became a father.

In October, Rubin brought about 80 scientists to Pittsburgh for a two-day meeting of the International Fat Applied Technology Society, of which he is president. The scientists concluded that the most promising applications for fat stem cells included the treatment of coronary artery disease and repairing congenital bone deformities.

But Rubin, always the innovator, is confident that this research could have even further implications, like treating heart disease, stroke, and liver disease. He thinks that Pittsburgh is the perfect place to continue to explore this.

"It's important to stay creative and stay innovative," he said. "In order to do that well, you need to be in an environment like Pittsburgh."