My path to becoming a Jacobson Promising Investigator was anything but intentional.
I arrived at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in 2002 with the goal of becoming a small-town pediatrician. Fundamental science research had been an enjoyable part of my college experience, but I expected it would end there, and I had no intention of becoming an investigator.
Within weeks of starting medical school, the first pivot came: I fell in love with surgery.
I felt somewhat lost by the unexpected change after a longstanding commitment to pediatrics, so I sought guidance. I would like to claim that I deliberately sought out an exceptional mentor, but I simply combined “pediatrics” and “surgery” and requested a meeting with Henri R. Ford, MD, MHA, FACS, then chief of pediatric surgery at Children’s Hospital of Pittsburgh.
I had no idea who Dr. Ford was or how my life would change after that meeting. The impression was profound. I still remember nearly every word he spoke during that hour.
When I asked how I could get involved, Dr. Ford told me that his job was “to be the gardener and to plant the seeds.” He walked me down the hall to meet a promising new surgeon-scientist who had just started his laboratory and was eager to mentor students.
That day began more than a decade of research with David J. Hackam, MD, PhD, spanning medical school and residency. I was astounded as I listened to Dr. Hackam talk about his mission to cure necrotizing enterocolitis, and I was immediately hooked. His intellect, energy, passion, and exceptional mentorship drew me to discovery.
Drs. Ford and Hackam were the first of many extraordinary surgeon-scientists I would work with at the University of Pittsburgh, where I found a culture that made training surgeon-scientists mission critical.
Near the end of a productive 3-year postdoctoral fellowship with Dr. Hackam, I reached another pivot point.
While taking trauma call, I witnessed an extraordinary operative save by my chair, Timothy R. Billiar, MD, FACS, in a patient dying from hemorrhage after multiple gunshot wounds.
Although we stopped the massive hemorrhage, the injuries and resuscitation left the patient critically ill and coagulopathic. I watched him progress to organ failure and bleed profusely while simultaneously clotting a dialysis circuit and developing a pulmonary embolus in the ICU.
I asked a trusted senior intensivist why this was happening, and he replied, “We just see this.”
That night, despite physical exhaustion, I could not sleep. I was deeply troubled by the mystery of what was happening. I decided that “we just see this” was an unacceptable answer and resolved to devote my career to understanding and treating trauma-induced coagulopathy.1
With the leadership and mentorship of Dr. Billiar, Andrew Peitzman, MD, and chair emeritus Richard L. Simmons, MD, I established a laboratory as a senior resident and applied what I had learned about innate immune signaling from Dr. Hackam to the study of platelet dysfunction after trauma.
Our early collaborative work identified unique roles for the innate immune receptor toll-like receptor 4 (TLR4) and the danger signal high-mobility group box 1 (HMGB1) on platelets.2,3 This early launch of my career as a surgeon-scientist was possible because of exceptional mentorship and a department committed to that mission.
In 2017, I was honored to receive the ACS Jacobson Promising Investigator Award. At that point in my career, I was an early-stage surgeon-scientist seeking to understand the mechanisms of platelet dysfunction after injury and hemorrhagic shock.
The award recognized a body of work focused on platelet biology, innate immunity, and trauma-induced coagulopathy, but perhaps more importantly, it represented an endorsement of a future vision.
Looking back nearly a decade later, I realize that the most important impact of the Jacobson Award was the inspiration to pursue what seemed improbable by transforming discoveries made in the laboratory into therapies capable of changing outcomes for injured patients like the one whose critical illness and coagulopathy inspired my career choice.
The legacy Julius H. Jacobson II, MD, FACS, and his wife Joan created through this award reflects the belief that surgeons should lead innovation in care and safety. The Promising Investigator Award recognizes surgeons at the “tipping point” of their research careers.4
After receiving this honor, I faced the new and uncertain challenge of how to direct the momentum of innovation after crossing that threshold. While our fundamental discovery science in platelet biology continued, I became increasingly motivated to apply what we had learned about platelets to technologies designed to control life-threatening bleeding.
From Platelet Biology to Synthetic Platelets
The central scientific focus of my laboratory has been platelet function after trauma and hemorrhage.
Over the last decade, our work and that of many collaborators has helped establish that platelets have important roles in inflammation, immune regulation, endothelial biology, and organ injury in addition to hemostasis.
As these studies progressed, we began to think more about donated platelet transfusion and the unmet need to optimize this aspect of resuscitation. Donated platelets can be lifesaving in hemorrhagic shock,5 but platelet transfusion may offer limited benefit or cause harm in some other forms of bleeding.6,7
Even when transfusion is indicated, donated platelets are constrained by short shelf life, limited availability, storage requirements, donor dependence, and logistical barriers that are particularly challenging in austere environments, rural settings, and military operations.8 These limitations have left much of the world in what colleagues and I have called a “platelet desert.”9 The idea that such an important tool for injured patients could be limited or unavailable represented another opportunity to challenge accepted practice.
The answer to this challenge required another pivot, this time leveraging our study of biology as part of an engineering solution.
Working with an interdisciplinary team alongside a remarkable and innovative partner, Anirban Sen Gupta, PhD, we helped advance the development of a synthetic platelet nanotechnology designed to mimic key platelet adhesion and aggregation functions.
Dr. Sen Gupta and his team developed an ambitious concept to create a biologically inspired nanoparticle capable of recognizing vascular injury, localizing to sites of bleeding, and amplifying clot formation without the limitations associated with donor-derived platelets.8
What began as a promising laboratory concept evolved through years of iterative experimentation, animal studies, manufacturing development, regulatory planning, and translational research. Along the way, our team demonstrated improved hemostasis and survival in multiple preclinical models of traumatic hemorrhage.10-13
These studies provided proof of principle that synthetic platelets could function as a novel hemostatic therapeutic. The next challenge was translating a project into a product.
Building a Company Around a Clinical Problem
As the synthetic platelet technology matured, it became clear that traditional academic pathways alone would be insufficient to bring the technology to patients. For some translational technologies, commercialization becomes necessary to continue that journey.
This realization led to the formation of Haima Therapeutics, a biotechnology company established to advance synthetic platelet technology and related hemorrhage-control therapeutics toward clinical application.
I have had the privilege of serving as chief medical officer, helping guide clinical strategy, translational development, regulatory planning, and interactions among academic investigators, industry partners, investors, and federal agencies.
For many surgeon-scientists, industry remains unfamiliar territory, and commercialization may sit outside traditional academic pathways. Yet many therapies require engagement with industry to move from promising research toward clinical use. Helping to develop and lead clinical strategy for Haima Therapeutics reinforced the importance of assembling teams that extend far beyond the laboratory.
Scientists, engineers, clinicians, regulatory experts, investors, manufacturers, and entrepreneurs all contribute expertise necessary for successful translation. No individual investigator can navigate this pathway alone. Perhaps the most gratifying aspect of this effort has been watching a technology move steadily toward clinical reality.
What began as a concept inspired by platelet biology is approaching first-in-human clinical evaluation in 2027.. The synthetic platelet technology is nearing a milestone that once seemed distant and aspirational.
Innovation Multiplies Through People
Another defining lesson since the Jacobson Award has been that scientific impact is amplified through people. In writing about social epidemics, Malcolm Gladwell describes how ideas spread and reach a tipping point.14
Early in my career, I largely defined success through grants, publications, and laboratory discoveries. Over time, I came to appreciate that greater impact can come from creating environments where other investigators can advance and spread new ideas. Although the Jacobson Award recognizes an individual investigator at a tipping point, progress in science depends on the people and environments that allow discoveries to grow.
This realization influenced many of my leadership roles, including the creation of the Trauma and Transfusion Medicine Research Center at the University of Pittsburgh.
The opportunity to recruit faculty, build collaborative programs, develop mentorship structures, and create strategic frameworks capable of accelerating innovation across multiple domains of investigation brought new energy.
The concept I increasingly embraced was force multiplication. A single laboratory can generate important discoveries while a community of investigators can transform an entire field.
Over the last decade, our programs have expanded to include basic scientists, translational investigators, clinical trialists, engineers, data scientists, and surgeon-scientists working across diverse disciplines.
Equally important has been the opportunity to mentor trainees and junior faculty. Watching and helping early-career investigators obtain career development awards, launch independent laboratories, secure federal funding, and emerge as national leaders has become one of the most rewarding aspects of academic surgery.
Innovation Still Starts with the Patient
As I reflect on the years since receiving the Jacobson Promising Investigator Award, I am struck by how much my definition of innovation has evolved. Initially, innovation meant discovering new biological mechanisms and answering previously unexplored scientific questions.
Today, it means something broader. It encompasses discovery, translation, entrepreneurship, leadership, and system building.
It requires not only generating ideas but also creating pathways that allow those ideas to reach patients. One principle remains unchanged. The questions we ask and the innovations we pursue should remain anchored in the patient care problems that keep us awake at night.
The Jacobson Award was established to recognize promising investigators. In retrospect, its greatest value may be the culture of innovation it promotes and the community of academic surgeons it helps create.
Looking across prior award recipients reveals another theme: a commitment to mentorship and to the growth of people and programs. The greatest privilege of my career has been the opportunity to pay forward the extraordinary efforts of my mentors.
I look forward to the next decade of innovation generated by our trainees and team and, above all, inspired by our patients.
Dr. Matthew Neal is interim chair of the Department of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh and University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), and serves as the Watson Chair and Professor of Surgery at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. He also is director of emergency general surgery at UPMC, co-director of the Trauma and Transfusion Medicine Research Center, and chief medical officer for Haima Therapeutics.
Disclaimer
The thoughts and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the ACS.
References
- Moore EE, Moore HB, Kornblith LZ, et al. Trauma-induced coagulopathy. Nat Rev Dis Primers. 2021 Apr 29;7(1):30.
- Ding N, Chen G, Hoffman R, et al. Toll-like receptor 4 regulates platelet function and contributes to coagulation abnormality and organ injury in hemorrhagic shock and resuscitation. Circ Cardiovasc Genet. 2014 Oct;7(5):615–24.
- Vogel S, Bodenstein R, Chen Q, et al. Platelet-derived HMGB1 is a critical mediator of thrombosis. J Clin Invest. 2015 Dec;125(12):4638–54.
- Emamaullee J, Lian T, Moroz S, et al. Defining the “Tipping Point” to Success as a Surgeon-scientist: An Analysis of Applicants and Awardees of the American College of Surgeons Jacobson Promising Investigator Award. Ann Surg. 2022 May 1;275(5):e678–e682.
- Cardenas JC, Zhang X, Fox EE, et al. Platelet transfusions improve hemostasis and survival in a substudy of the prospective, randomized PROPPR trial. Blood Adv. 2018 Jul 24;2(14):1696–1704.
- Alvikas J, Myers SP, Wessel CB, et al. A systematic review and meta-analysis of traumatic intracranial hemorrhage in patients taking prehospital antiplatelet therapy: Is there a role for platelet transfusions? J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2020 Jun;88(6):847–854.
- Baharoglu MI, Cordonnier C, Al-Shahi Salman R, et al. Platelet transfusion versus standard care after acute stroke due to spontaneous cerebral haemorrhage associated with antiplatelet therapy (PATCH): A randomised, open-label, phase 3 trial. Lancet. 2016 Jun 25;387(10038):2605–2613.
- Luc NF, Rohner N, Girish A, et al. Bioinspired artificial platelets: Past, present and future. Platelets. 2022 Jan 2;33(1):35–47.
- Neal MD, Spinella PC, Kornblith LZ. An Oasis in the Platelet Desert? JAMA. 2026 Feb 17;335(7):583–584.
- Dyer MR, Hickman D, Luc N, et al. Intravenous administration of synthetic platelets (SynthoPlate) in a mouse liver injury model of uncontrolled hemorrhage improves hemostasis. J Trauma Acute Care Surg. 2018 Jun;84(6):917–923.
- Sekhon UDS, Swingle K, Girish A, et al. Platelet-mimicking procoagulant nanoparticles augment hemostasis in animal models of bleeding. Sci Transl Med. 2022 Jan 26;14(629):eabb8975.
- Liu Z, Abdullah A, Secunda ZA, et al. Intraosseous administration of lyophilized synthetic platelets renders hemostatic efficacy in rat model of traumatic hemorrhage. J Thromb Haemost. 2026 Mar;24(3):877–889.
- Sekhon UDS, Disharoon D, Desai SS, et al. Lyophilized synthetic platelets: In vitro characterization and in vivo evaluation in mouse thrombocytopenia model. Adv Sci (Weinh). 2026;13(38):e00002.
- Gladwell M. The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference. New York, NY: Little, Brown and Company; 2000.
