CHICAGO — Christian P. Larsen, MD, DPhil, FACS, an internationally recognized transplant surgeon and immunologist whose work revolutionized organ rejection prevention, is the recipient of this year's American College of Surgeons (ACS) Jacobson Innovation Award.
Dr. Larsen, the Carlos and Marguerite Mason Professor of Surgery at Emory University Hospital and chief scientific officer of Woodruff Health Sciences and Emory Healthcare in Atlanta, Georgia, received the award at a banquet Friday, June 5, in Chicago, Illinois.
“Dr. Larsen’s work reflects the very best of surgical innovation: scientific discovery translated into meaningful advances for patients,” said Patricia L. Turner, MD, MBA, FACS, ACS Executive Director & CEO. “His pioneering research in transplant immunology has helped reduce organ rejection and improve outcomes for patients who depend on lifesaving transplants.”
Dr. Larsen built one of the foremost transplantation immunology programs in the world at the Emory Transplant Center, which he co-founded and now co-directs. His nearly 30 consecutive years of National Institutes of Health funding have yielded groundbreaking insights into how the immune system recognizes and rejects transplanted organs.
“It's a tremendous honor to win this award,” Dr. Larsen said. “Those who have won the award are icons and role models and people I admire greatly.”
Transforming Antirejection Regimens
Dr. Larsen's most significant clinical achievement is the development of belatacept (Nulojix), the first costimulation blocker medication created specifically for kidney transplant patients. Unlike traditional calcineurin inhibitor drugs, belatacept blocks the costimulation of T-cells, deterring organ rejection with lower toxicity. More than 2,500 kidney transplant patients have since been treated at Emory with the medication.
Clinical trials showed that belatacept had significant promise, reducing graft loss and death by about 40% at seven years while improving kidney function and reducing important complications. As with many new classes of medicines, however, clinical use brought new challenges and required continued refinement to optimize patient outcomes.
“Much of the last couple of decades have been about learning to use this medicine and making iterative changes to the protocols, using adaptive design in practice, and then de-intensifying the treatments for patients who are at low risk and intensifying for those at high risk,” Dr. Larsen said.
With each refinement, Dr. Larsen and the team have reduced rejection rates, rescued more kidneys, and in many cases reduced the burden of health care by decreasing the number of pills and the number of visits to healthcare facilities. Belatacept remains a chosen therapy for kidney transplant patients today.
Ongoing Investigations
Dr. Larsen's current research focuses on understanding alloimmunity, or how the body recognizes organs as foreign. His work involves an ongoing mapping project focused on HLA-DQ, a molecule that plays a key role in how patients develop antibodies against donated organs.
“If you can understand which parts of that molecule are foreign to you, there may be ways to predict risk and develop tolerance strategies, so that you can perhaps silence the T-cell help for that and prevent that risk,” he said.
Dr. Larsen remains engaged with the transplantation community, including Robert Montgomery, MD, DPhil, FACS, the 2024 Jacobson Innovation Award winner, whom he has known since their overlapping years at Oxford.
He also has a social connection to the award's namesake, vascular surgeon Julius Jacobson II, MD, FACS (1927–2022). An Emory colleague was Dr. Jacobson's son-in-law. “We've been contemporaries all along,” Dr. Larsen said. “That is also very special.”
An ACS Fellow since 1994, Dr. Larsen's previous recognitions include the 2007 Thomas E. Starzl Prize in Surgery and Immunology, induction to the Institute of Medicine in 2014, the 2021 American Medical Association Scientific Achievement Award, and a 2025 Pioneer Award from the American Society of Transplant Surgeons.
Dr. Larsen earned his medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine, followed by a surgical residency and transplant fellowship at Emory, as well as a doctorate in transplantation immunology at the University of Oxford, England, under Sir Peter Morris, MBBS, AC, FRS, FRCS, FACS. He also completed a fellowship at Rockefeller University with Ralph Steinman, MD, who was then discovering dendritic cells — an achievement for which Dr. Steinman won the 2011 Nobel Prize.
About the Jacobson Innovation Award
Through the Jacobson Innovation Award, the ACS recognizes living surgeons who have innovated a new development or technique in any surgical discipline. It was established with a gift from Julius H. Jacobson II, MD, FACS, a vascular surgeon known for his innovations in microsurgery, and his wife, Joan.
