Joseph P. Vacanti, MD, FACS,
receives 2015 Jacobson
Innovation Award
Dr. Vacanti, right, holding the award medallion, with
Andrew Warshaw, MD, FACS, FRCSEd(Hon), ACS President.
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Joseph P. Vacanti, MD, FACS,
received the 2015 Jacobson
Innovation Award of the
American College of Surgeons
(ACS) at a dinner on June 5 at
the John B. Murphy Memorial
Auditorium in Chicago, IL.
Dr. Vacanti is the John Homans
Professor of Surgery at Harvard
Medical School and is the
director of the Laboratory for
Tissue Engineering and Organ
Fabrication, co-director of
the Center for Regenerative
Medicine, and chief of pediatric
transplantation at Massachusetts
General Hospital, Boston.
The prestigious Jacobson
Innovation Award honors
living surgeons who have been
innovators of a new development
or technique in any field of
surgery and 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 microsurgery.
Honored for tissue engineering
This year’s Jacobson Innovation
Award honors Dr. Vacanti for
his work in the field of tissue
engineering, which began in
the early 1980s and stemmed
from a long-held interest in
addressing organ shortages.
Working with Robert Langer,
ScD, the David H. Koch
Institute Professor at the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, Cambridge, Dr.
Vacanti developed an approach
using tissue-specific cells
placed in scaffolds made of
biodegradable polymers. The
cells, derived from both living
tissue or stem cells, are then
bathed in growth factors and
proceed to multiply, filling the
scaffold. The cells then grow
into three-dimensional tissue
that, once implanted in the
body, recreates its proper tissue
function. Blood vessels grow
into the new tissue, the scaffold
degrades, and the lab-grown
tissue becomes indistinguishable
from its surroundings.
Dr. Vacanti also has been an
innovator in pediatric surgery. In
1984, while at Children’s Hospital
Boston, Dr. Vacanti instituted
New England’s first successful
pediatric extracorporeal
membrane oxygenation program.
In addition, he started the
nation’s first liver transplantation
program specifically for the
pediatric population.
Dr. Vacanti was a founding
co-president of the Tissue
Engineering Society, now the
Tissue Engineering Regenerative
Medicine International Society
(TERMIS) and which boasts
5,000 active members from
80 countries worldwide. He
was also the founding senior
editor of the journal Tissue
Engineering, which serves the
members of TERMIS. The
journal can be found in 1,700
libraries in 20 countries and
is provided free online to
106 developing countries.
