Benedict Cosimi, M.D.


Claude E. Welch Distinguished Professor of Surgery
Harvard Medical School
Physician Investigator (Cl)
Transplant Surgery, Mass General Research Institute
Visiting Surgeon
Transplant Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital
MD University of Colorado School of Medicine 1964
bone marrow transplantation; graft rejection; immunosuppressive agents; kidney transplantation; liver transplantation; macaca fascicularis; monoclonal antibodies; okt3 monoclonal antibody; transplantation chimera; transplantation tolerance Dr. A. Benedict Cosimi is Chief Emeritus, Transplantation at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH). He was the 32nd President of ASTS and President of the 2006 World Transplant Congress. Dr. Cosimi trained in transplantation with both Dr. Thomas Starzl at Colorado and Dr. Paul S. Russell at the MGH. He joined the staff of the MGH in 1972 as the Surgical Director of the Transplant Unit, where he established New England’s first liver transplant program in 1983; New England’s first pancreas transplant program in 1986; New England’s first intestine transplant program in 1991; and the world’s first successful tolerance induction program in 1998. Dr. Cosimi has had a special interest in highly selective suppression of transplant immunity, initially using antithymocyte globulin and then monoclonal antibodies. He was the first to demonstrate in 1980 the efficacy of OKT3 monoclonal antibody for treatment of allograft rejection.