Dr. Thomas Starzl receiving prestigious King Faisal International prize this week in Saudi Arabia

Transplant pioneer Thomas E. Starzl, M.D., Ph.D., professor of surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, will accept one of the world's most prestigious awards, the King Faisal International Prize for Medicine, at a formal ceremony to be held Feb. 17 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, under the auspices of the King of Saudi Arabia.

According to the King Faisal Foundation, the largest philanthropic organization in the Middle East, the prize is in recognition of Dr. Starzl's outstanding contributions in the field of organ transplantation. He shares the award with two other transplant pioneers, Norman E. Shumway, M.D., a heart transplant surgeon from Stanford University, and Sir Roy Calne, a liver transplant surgeon from the University of Cambridge, United Kingdom. Each will receive a uniquely cast, commemorative 24-carat, 200-gram gold medal. The award's cash endowment of $200,000 will be divided among the three winners.

"Professor Starzl's pioneering work has influenced all aspects of organ transplantation," said officials from the Faisal Foundation when the winners of the prizes were announced in December.

Dr. Starzl performed the world's first liver transplant in 1963 at the University of Colorado. In 1962 and 1963, he introduced the concept of incorporating corticosteroids into the immunosuppression regimen for patients receiving kidney transplants from non-identical human living donors, which led to the largest series of kidney transplants and invigorated clinical attempts throughout the world. Lessons learned from kidney transplantation and other discoveries he made about liver physiology resulted in his performing the world's first successful liver transplant in 1967.

Since coming to the University of Pittsburgh in 1981, Dr. Starzl pioneered the immunosuppressive agent tacrolimus, resulting in significant improvements in organ transplant survival rates and allowing successful transplantation of the small intestine and multivisceral grafts. More recently, Dr. Starzl has made important discoveries about transplant tolerance, which have completely changed the face and conventional paradigms of transplant immunology, particularly with respect to how and why organs are accepted.

"Dr. Thomas Starzl's pioneering efforts in all aspects of organ transplantation over the past 41 years have elevated this field from one of animal experimentation to a clinically valid treatment," wrote Arthur S. Levine, M.D., senior vice chancellor for the health sciences and dean, University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, in nominating Dr. Starzl for the award on behalf of the university.

"His contributions to immunosuppressive techniques, organ procurement, organ preservation, tissue matching, surgical technique and the team approach to organ transplantation began with the kidney and liver, and eventually paved the way for the first trials of heart, lung, pancreas, intestinal and multivisceral transplantation. Each clinical advance was based upon, and in turn, spawned, derivative basic science programs that sustained progress in transplantation science or launched new fields,'' Dr. Levine continued.

Until Dr. Starzl's retirement from clinical practice in 1991, he oversaw the largest and busiest transplant program in the world. Since his coming to the University of Pittsburgh 20 years ago, more than 11,000 organ transplants have been performed. Dr. Starzl currently serves as director of the University of Pittsburgh's Thomas E. Starzl Transplantation Institute, a post that allows his full attention to research.

Dr. Starzl has authored or co-authored more than 2,130 scientific articles, four books and 292 chapters. According to the Institute for Scientific Information (ISI), Dr. Starzl once averaged one paper every 7.3 days, making him one of the most prolific scientists in the world. In 1999, ISI identified Dr. Starzl as the most cited scientist in the field of clinical medicine, a measure of his work's lasting influence and utility.

He was founding president of the American Society of Transplant Surgeons and founding vice-president of the International Transplantation Society. He currently belongs to 56 scientific and medical societies and has given more than 1,200 presentations at major meetings throughout the world. Over the years, he has received more than 175 awards and honors.

The King Faisal International Prize has ranked among the world's preeminent scientific and humanitarian awards for more than two decades. The prize has five categories: Science, Medicine, Arabic Literature, Islamic Studies and Service to Islam. With the exception of Service to Islam, each category is distinguished by a topic that changes each year. In the case of Medicine, topics are relevant to current areas of international concern. For 2001, the topic was organ transplantation.

Nominations for each prize are accepted from relevant institutions and organizations from around the globe. Independent experts examine all works in two elimination rounds and forward the list of finalists to special selection committees at the King Faisal Foundation.

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