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Transplant
Pioneer Thomas Starzl To Receive
President's National Medal Of Science
Nov. 16, 2005
— University of Pittsburgh transplant pioneer Thomas E. Starzl,
MD, PhD, has been named recipient of the 2004 National Medal of Science,
the nation's highest scientific honor. Dr. Starzl, distinguished service
professor of surgery, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and
director emeritus, Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute at the University
of Pittsburgh Medical Center, and seven other medal laureates will receive
the awards from President George W. Bush in a White House ceremony in
the near future.
Dr. Starzl’s
groundbreaking work in organ transplantation has spanned more than four
decades and has earned Dr. Starzl the distinction as the father of transplantation,
and Pittsburgh the moniker transplant capital of the world.
“Dr. Starzl’s
selection for this high honor is a well-deserved tribute to a life characterized
by high achievement and extraordinary impact,” said University of
Pittsburgh Chancellor Mark Nordenberg. “He has been called the greatest
surgeon of the twentieth century and also has been identified as the world’s
most-cited scientist in the broad field of clinical medicine. He first
led pioneering efforts that utilized anti-rejection drugs to make human
organ transplantation possible and then, in an amazing development, led
equally significant research efforts to decrease the long-term dependency
of organ recipients on those same drugs. What he has contributed to the
cause of human health is immeasurable and everyone at the University of
Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center is proud that Dr.
Starzl has done much of his path-breaking work here,” Mr. Nordenberg
said.
Dr. Starzl performed the world’s first liver transplant in 1963
while at the University of Colorado. Four years later, he performed the
first successful liver transplant. In 1980, he brought the field a step
forward when he introduced the new anti-rejection medications anti-lymphocyte
globulin and cyclosporine, which became the accepted transplant regimen
for patients with liver, kidney and heart failure.
In 1981, Dr. Starzl joined the University
of Pittsburgh School of Medicine and led the team of surgeons who
performed the city's first liver transplant. Thirty liver transplants
were performed that year, launching the university's liver
transplant program – the only one in the nation at the time
– and invigorating the university's heart and kidney
transplant programs. In 1989, Dr. Starzl introduced the anti-rejection
medication FK506, which markedly increased survival rates for liver and
other organ transplants and led the way to other successful types of organ
transplants, including pancreas, lung and intestine.
Today, Dr. Starzl remains active in research, mapping the relationship
between donor and recipient cells and developing new therapeutic strategies
to achieve immune tolerance after transplantation with a much lower risk
of side effects from immunosuppressive therapy.
“No one is more deserving of being recognized with the 2004 National
Medal of Science than Dr. Thomas Starzl, including the Nobel laureates
who share this year’s White House honor with him,” said Arthur
Levine, MD, senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and dean of
the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine.
“Simply put,” he continued, “Dr.Starzl was — and
is — an innovator whose scientific vision has always been well ahead
of his time. Dr. Starzl spearheaded the transformation of organ transplantation
from an intriguing research concept to a relatively routine clinical reality,
laying the groundwork for an entirely new field of medicine. In the process,
he also has illuminated fundamental immunologic mechanisms that have ramifications
far beyond his own field. And not incidentally, Dr. Starzl has trained
many of the physicians who now lead organ transplantation programs worldwide.
We are honored that Dr. Starzl chose to make his long-term academic home
at the University of Pittsburgh,” Dr. Levine said.
Established by Congress in 1959, the National Medal of Science is the
nation’s highest honor for American scientists and is awarded annually
by the President of the United States to individuals “deserving
of special recognition for their outstanding contributions to knowledge.”
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