A professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine has been named the recipient of the fourth Anthony Cerami Award in Translational Medicine by the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in Manhasset.
Dr. Thomas E. Starzl will receive a $20,000 prize from Molecular Medicine, a peer-reviewed medical journal published by the Feinstein Institute, in recognition of his research in organ transplantation and alloengraftment mechanisms.
Starzl’s monograph, “A Journey in Science: The Birth of Organ Transplantation with Particular Reference to Alloengraftment Mechanisms,” was published Thursday on Molecular Medicine’s website.
“Receiving the Anthony Cerami Award in Translational Medicine is a distinguished honor — Dr. Cerami is a pioneer in the field of molecular medicine and I am privileged to accept an award that is named after him,” Starzl said in a statement. “My journey in human organ transplantation has been an exciting one. Additional advancements in transplantation tolerance are still needed, and I am looking forward to seeing what future scientists can uncover.”
The Cerami award “recognizes that the story behind making a discovery in medicine and healthcare is cherished and should be documented,” according to a North Shore-LIJ Health System news release.
It was established “to recognize investigators who provided the crucial, early insight and ideas that are the essence of discovery,” said Dr. Kevin J. Tracey, president and chief executive officer of the Feinstein Institute, adding: “Creating new fields and research trajectories, followed by persistent clinical investigation, enables us to ultimately change how disease is prevented, diagnosed and treated.”
Starzl’s monograph describes the researcher’s early experiences in neuroscience and cardiac physiology and his later interest in studying the liver and its transplant process.
“Dr. Thomas Starzl’s development of key surgical techniques during liver transplantation, discovery of microchimerism and usage of therapies to thwart transplant rejection vastly improves the life expectancy of transplant recipients,” Tracey said.
