Camillo Ricordi
Camillo Ricordi, is a diabetes researcher based in Miami, FL. He currently serves as Director of the Diabetes Research Institute, a position he has held since 1996. He is the Chief Academic Officer of the Diabetes Research Institute of the University of Miami and is director of the DRI's Cell Transplant Center. He has been active in stem cell research and its applications to treating diabetes, particularly Type 1 Diabetes. He specializes in pancreatic islet transplantation
Career
Ricordi studied from 1971 to 1976 at the Scientific Lyceum in Milan and graduated Cum Laude in Medicine from the University of Milan in 1982. During his medical studies at the University of Milan he did internships at the Institute of Central Nervous System Physiology of the National Research Council and later, as a student of internal medicine in the Internal Medicine Department of the San Raffaele Institute in Milan.After graduating in medicine, he specialized in Gastrointestinal Surgery and Digestive Endoscopy at the University of Milan, graduating Cum Laude in 1988. During this same period he completed several complementary studies at the University of Washington School of Medicine, in the Department of Genetics, and conducting training in Immunogenetics and Immunobiology of cell transplants.
After a period of military service in the Italian Air Force, where he worked as a medical officer with the rank of Lieutenant, he joined as Assistant Professor of Surgery in the Department of Surgery of the Division of Transplantation in the School of Medicine of the University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
His professional career has been developed in the educational and scientific field mainly. He has been Co-Director of the Executive Office of Research Leadership, as Senior Associate Dean of Research and has chaired the Dean's Research Office at the Miller School of Medicine, University of Miami.
Camillo Ricordi is Professor of Surgery at Stacy Joy Goodman, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Miami, Florida, where he also appears as Director of the Diabetes Research Institute and the Cell Transplant Center.
He is also a Head of the Human Cell Processing Facility, funded by NIH, which has been providing human cell products for research and clinical applications at the University of Miami, Florida and throughout the world since 1993.
Professional achievements
He was part of a team in 1986 at the Washington University in St. Louis that pioneered what is known as the islet transplant procedure, developed to address the worst cases of diabetes type 1. He is credited with developing the automated method for islet cell isolation called the "Ricordi Method.” The method includes the use of the Ricordi Chamber, for which Dr. Ricordi obtained the Nessim Habif World Prize for Surgery at the University of Geneva in 2001. The award is given to the invention of a machine that allows progress to be made significant in a field of surgery. Dr. Ricordi's invention of the automated islet isolation method made it possible to obtain a greater number of islets of a human pancreas; before they needed up to five or six organs to carry out a transplant.Ricordi has been published in academic and medical journals, having authored over 700 scientific publications. He has been awarded 27 patents as an inventor. He has participated in congresses and meetings on isolation and transplantation of islets for the treatment of diabetes.
Acknowledgments
- 1987 National Research Service Award : Immunogenetics and Immunobiology of Cell Transplantation.
- 1988 International Juvenile Diabetes Foundation: Research Award
- 1993 International Juvenile Diabetes Foundation: Research Award
- 1994 Founder and Chairman of the Diabetes Research International Network
- 1994 Co-Founder of the National Diabetes Research Coalition
- 1997 Walter Brendel Award for the best scientific research at the XXXII Congress of the European Surgical Research Society
- 1999 Millenium Award for diabetes and transplantation research from the Italy-America Chamber of Commerce
- 1999 National Disease Research Interchange Award for 10 years of service
- 1999 Special government consultant to the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research of the FDA
- 2000 Recipient of the 1999-2000 Dean's Research Award
- 2002 Provost Award from the University of Miami for its academic activity.
- 2002 Outstanding Scientific Achievement Award of the ADA
- 2002 Recipient of the Carl Gustav Groth Lecture Award, Nobel Forum
- 2002 Member of NIH-ICR's Executive Committee as Director of the NIH regional center for human islet cell processing
- 2004 Selected by NIH as 1 of 6 extramural scientists profiled in the book "NIH Overview of Research Activities," Publication #04-5488, Sept. 2004
- 2006 Awarded the Lois Pope LIFE International Research Award
- 2006 Health Care Hero Biomedical Award from the Miami Chamber of Commerce
- 2006 Julius Caesar Presidential Medal, City of Rome, Campidoglio
- 2006 Paul Harris Fellowship Award
- 2006 Community Recognition Award, South Florida International Press Club
- 2006 Roche Award for Outstanding Achievement in Transplant Science
- 2008 Recipient of the National Italian American Foundation Special Achievement Award
- 2009 Knighted by the Italian Republic in the "Ordine al Merito della Republica Italiana" with the Knighthood decoration of Cavaliere Ufficiale
- 2010 Member of the Association of American Physicians
- 2011 D-Life's Top Award for making the biggest difference in diabetes in 2010
- 2012 Ranked #1 among diabetes scientists working abroad
- 2012 Member of the working group on stem cell research of the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, The Vatican, Italy
- 2012 Recipient of the Premio Franca Florio "Italian Scientists Special Award"
- 2013 Appointed President of RiMED Foundation in Italy
- 2015 Lecture named in Dr. Ricordi's honor for his vision, leadership and integral role in the development of the Cell Transplant Society and for his ongoing contributions to the field of cellular research. Lecture delivered at IPITA-IXA-CTS joint congress in Melbourne, Australia.
- 2016 Recipient of the Stem Cell & Regeneration Medicine Action "Advocacy Award" at World Stem Cell Summit, West Palm Beach, FL
- 2018 Inducted into the National Academy of Inventors, Washington, DC
- 2018 Ranked as the top-rated expert in the world in transplantation of insulin-producing cells for treatment of diabetes, positioning the overall ranking of the University of Miami among the top three institutions worldwide
- 2019 Appointed by the Italian Minister of Health to Italy's Supreme Council of Health, the committee of 30 medical experts who advise the government on health policy