The American Society of Transplantation Announces Dr. Joren C. Madsen as President

PR Log (Press Release) – Jun 17, 2009 – Dr. Madsen assumed his responsibilities at the recent American Transplant Congress, which was held in Boston. He is director of Massachusetts General Hospital’s (MGH) Transplant Center, Section Chief of Cardiac Surgery at MGH, and Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School.

A graduate of Brown University, Dr. Madsen also attended Bates College and received his medical degree from the University of Massachusetts Medical School. From 1982 to 1990, he trained as a surgical intern and resident at the Massachusetts General Hospital. During his general surgery training, Dr. Madsen became interested in transplantation and immunology. During time off from surgery, between 1985 and 1988, he studied transplantation immunology in the Department of Surgery at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford under Sir Professor Peter J. Morris and Professor Kathryn Wood. This led to a D. Phil. in Immunology from Balliol College Oxford University.  

In 1993, Dr. Madsen completed a three-year fellowship in Cardiothoracic Surgery at the Massachusetts General Hospital and Boston's Children's Hospital. He then joined the Division of Cardiac Surgery at MGH to practice adult and pediatric cardiac surgery with an emphasis in cardiac transplantation. At that time, he also joined the Transplantation Biology Research Center and in 1996 was made Senior Investigator and Director of the Cardiothoracic Transplantation Laboratory. In 1999, Dr. Madsen was made an Associate Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School and the Surgical Director of the Cardiac Transplantation at the Massachusetts General Hospital.

Dr. Madsen's research interests include transplantation tolerance, chronic rejection, and innate immunity. In 2002, he received the Fujisawa Basic Science Award from the American Society of Transplantation for his contributions to the field.

In 2005 he was made the W. Gerald and Patricia R. Austen Distinguished Scholar in Cardiac Surgery at Massachusetts General Hospital. He has been very active in AST serving as a Councilor-at-Large from 2005-2008, and a member of the Ad Hoc AST/NIH Committees, Awards and Grants Committee, and Nominating Committee. He also served as Chair and Co Chair of the Intra-Thoracic Organs Committee.

“I am honored to have the opportunity to lead the AST and to work with my fellow board members who represent a variety of specializations within the field of transplantation. The AST’s accomplishments over the years have been many and impressive. I look forward to working on key transplant issues with this highly motivated and highly regarded society,” said Dr. Madsen