International Society of Nephrology honors BIDMC Co-director for immune tolerance research

Terry Strom, MD, Co-director of the Transplant Institute at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) and a leader in the field of immune tolerance research, was awarded the 2011 Alfred Newton Richards Award from the International Society of Nephrology during a program held earlier this month as part of the World Congress of Nephrology 2011 in Vancouver, Canada.

The award, which recognizes outstanding basic research in fields relevant to nephrology, is named in honor of Alfred Newton Richards, a renowned physiologist known for the development of the micropuncture procedure.

A Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School, Strom's career spans more than 30 years. To date, he has published more than 700 manuscripts in the fields of immunbiology and transplantation and has conducted pioneering investigations of the cellular and molecular bases of immune tolerance, the immune system's ability to recognize and "tolerate" the body's own cells and molecules in order to prevent organ rejection.

"Dr. Strom's groundbreaking work in understanding the basic mechanisms underlying immunosuppressive agents has evolved to include the design of new therapeutics and the development of immune-tolerance therapies for patient care," notes BIDMC Chief Academic Officer Vikas Sukhatme, MD, PhD. "His contributions have provided the field of nephrology with a critically important foundation in the biology of immune cells and tolerance, and his work is a tremendous example of how translational science can successfully move basic laboratory discoveries into promising new patient therapies."

Strom has elucidated the basic mechanisms of action of immunosuppressives and has designed new therapeutics, work leading to the development of anti-CD25 monoclonal antibodies. Two new therapies created in the Strom laboratory will soon enter human clinical trials, and his inquiries into the molecular signature of allograft rejection are under development for individualized patient care. Using newly developed molecular and imaging tools, the Strom laboratory is now revealing interactions between the adaptive and innate immune systems that are of both scientific and clinical importance.

A founding member and past president of both the American Society of Transplantation and the Clinical Immunology Society, Strom has trained over 90 doctoral and post-doctoral students who now hold prominent positions in academia and industry throughout the world. At BIDMC's Transplant Institute, which Strom co-directs with Laurence Turka, MD, PhD, he continues to guide and mentor 55 full-time investigators.

Strom was educated as an Illinois State Scholar, and went on to receive an NIH Career Development Award and was honored as Lilly Lecturer of the Royal College of Physicians.. Throughout his prolific career, Strom has been honored with numerous awards, including the 1997 Sandoz Transplant Established Investigator Award of the American Society of Transplant Physicians, the 2001 Roche American Society of Transplantation Distinguished Achievement Award and the Homer Smith Award from the American Society of Nephrology. He has served on the U.S. Senate-appointed Task Force on Transplantation.