Immunofree, a company advancing stem cell technology to eliminate the need for immunosuppressive medications in transplant patients, congratulates Dr. Robert Montgomery on winning the prestigious Jacobson Innovation Award from the American College of Surgeons.
The award was presented to Dr. Montgomery on June 14, 2024, at the Chicago History Museum at a dinner in his honor.
Dr. Montgomery is the Chair of the NYU Department of Surgery and Director of the NYU Langone Transplant Institute and serves on Immunofree’s Advisory Board. Dr. Montgomery has performed more than 1,000 kidney transplants and is often referred patients who have the most difficult and complex situations. He is also considered the world’s authority on desensitization—the process of readying patients to receive incompatible tissue or blood type transplants.
Below are a few of Dr. Montgomery’s pioneering innovations and initiatives that were highlighted at the event:
- The domino chain (estimated patient impact: 30,000+ in the U.S.)
- Leveraging domino chain matching to facilitate low eplet mismatches
- Pioneering work in desensitization
- Pioneering work in expanding Good Samaritan donation
- Donor laparoscopic nephrectomy
- Tolerance: eliminating immunosuppression
- Xeno kidney transplant: first in the world
This year marks the 30th year the Jacobson Innovation Award has been presented. This video presents a short history of 30 surgeons who have won the Jacobson Innovation Award.
“This is a well-deserved honor for Dr. Montgomery,” said Garet Hil, Immunofree Founder, who was also in attendance at the event. “It is interesting to note that Thomas Starzl won this award in 1995 on the heels of his pioneering work with immunosuppression (development of cyclosporine and tacrolimus) and now Dr. Montgomery is helping lead the effort to eliminate immunosuppression utilizing stem cell transplant technology. We congratulate Dr. Montogomery on his important work and look forward to collaborating with him on new innovations to help transplant patients lead longer, healthier lives.”
About ImmunoFree
ImmunoFree (www.immunofree.com) was founded in 2023 to improve the lives of transplant patients by using new stem cell technology to eliminate the need for immunosuppressive medications.
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