ACS Regent Anthony Atala, MD, FACS, received the 2022 ACS Jacobson Innovation Award during a dinner in his honor Friday, June 10, in Chicago, IL. Dr. Atala is the George Link Jr. Professor and Director of the Wake Forest Institute for Regenerative Medicine (WFIRM) and the W.H. Boyce Professor and Chair of Urology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine in Winston-Salem, NC.
The international surgical award honors living surgeons who are innovators of a new development or technique in any field of surgery. It is made possible through a gift from Julius H. Jacobson II, MD, FACS, and his wife Joan. Dr. Jacobson is a general vascular surgeon known for his pioneering work in the development of microsurgery.
“I am truly humbled and honored to receive this award,” Dr. Atala said. “The things that were accomplished [for myself] with this research are not really important. What is important is what we do for our patients, and—more important—what we do for each other.”
Dr. Atala is a pediatric urologist, researcher, professor, and mentor who is renowned for developing foundational principles for regenerative medicine research, which holds great promise for people who require tissue substitution and reconstruction. Dr. Atala and his team successfully implanted the world’s first laboratory-grown bladder in 1999.
His trailblazing work has expanded, and today, WFIRM is a leader in translating scientific discovery into regenerative clinical therapies. He leads the institute’s interdisciplinary team of more than 450 researchers and physicians. WFIRM also has developed 15 technology-based applications for replacing and regenerating muscle, urethra, cartilage, reproductive, and skin tissue. The institute presently is working on more than 40 tissues and organs.
Through Dr. Atala's vision, ingenuity, and leadership, the WFIRM team has developed specialized 3-D printers to engineer tissues. This work is accomplished by using cells to create various tissues and organs, including miniature organs called organoids that create body-on-a-chip systems. Dr. Atala and his team also discovered a stem cell population derived from both the amniotic fluid and the placenta, which are being used for clinically relevant research.
Dr. Atala’s innovative work has been recognized as one of Time magazine's Top 10 Medical Breakthroughs in 2007, Smithsonian's 2010 Top Science Story of the Year, and US News & World Report's honor as one of 14 top Pioneers of Medical Progress in the 21st Century. He was elected in 2011 to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies of Sciences (now the National Academy of Medicine) and inducted into the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering. In 2014, he was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors as a Charter Fellow and has been a thoughtful contributor to the ACS Surgical Forum and Surgical Research Committee. He presented the prestigious Martin Memorial Lecture, Regenerative Medicine: New Approaches to Health Care, during the 2010 ACS Clinical Congress,.
Throughout his career, Dr. Atala has led or served on several national professional and government committees, including the National Institutes of Health Working Group on Cells and Developmental Biology and Bioengineering Consortium, as well as the National Cancer Institute's Advisory Board. He is a founder of the Tissue Engineering Society, Regenerative Medicine Society, Regenerative Medicine Foundation, Alliance for Regenerative Medicine, Regenerative Medicine Development Organization, Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Society, and Regenerative Medicine Manufacturing Consortium.
You are invited to watch the proceedings of the award dinner below, including Dr. Atala's acceptance speech.
