BALTIMORE, March 28,
2024 /PRNewswire/ -- University
of Maryland School of Medicine (UMSOM) Dean Mark T. Gladwin, MD, announced today that
Martine Rothblatt PhD, JD, MBA, Chairperson and CEO of United
Therapeutics, and inventor of SiriusXM Satellite Radio, will
deliver the keynote address for this year's graduating medical
student class. The UMSOM MD graduation ceremony will take place at
the Hippodrome Theatre on Thursday, May 16,
2024. The ceremony will begin at 1:00
pm. Details for faculty members are here. Details for
students/guests are here.
Dr. Rothblatt is a trailblazing pioneer of several innovations
in biotechnology, pharmaceuticals, and satellite communications.
After developing SiriusXM, she founded United Therapeutics, in an
effort to find a cure for her daughter's life-threatening illness,
pulmonary arterial hypertension. Under Dr. Rothblatt's leadership,
United Therapeutics, headquartered in Silver Spring, Maryland, has become a large
biotech company focused on engineering cell biology to develop new
therapeutics and manufactured transplantable organs. Its monoclonal
antibody has been approved to treat neuroblastoma, and its
genetically modified pig hearts and kidneys were the first to be
transplants into humans.
The biotech company funded and helped establish the Cardiac
Xenotransplantation Program at the University
of Maryland School of Medicine, which led to the world's
first two transplants of genetically-modified pig organs into
living patients. Both patients were transplanted with pig hearts to
treat their terminal heart failure and lived for more than a
month.
The historic procedures were performed at the University of Maryland Medical Center
by Bartley Griffith, MD,
Professor of Surgery and The Thomas E. and Alice Marie Hales
Distinguished Professor in Transplantation at UMSOM and
Muhammad M. Mohiuddin, MD, Professor
of Surgery and Scientific/Program Director of the Cardiac
Xenotransplantation Program at UMSOM.
"We are thrilled to have Dr. Rothblatt address this
distinguished class of up-and-coming physicians," said Dr.
Gladwin who is the John Z. and Akiko K. Bowers Distinguished
Professor and Dean of UMSOM, and Vice President for Medical Affairs
at University of Maryland, Baltimore.
"Her contributions and groundbreaking developments in addressing
lung disease, cancer, and the chronic organ shortage have had an
immeasurable impact on the field of medicine. She's a role model
for our medical students, demonstrating that if you have the will
to have a substantial impact, you can make it happen."
An attorney-entrepreneur, Dr. Rothblatt is a tireless advocate
for human rights. In 1992, she led the International Bar
Association's efforts in drafting the Universal Declaration on the
Human Genome and Human Rights and has been a leading advocate for
transgender acceptance. For her impacts in satellite
communications, she was elected to the International Institute of
Space Law and has represented the radio astronomy community's
scientific interests before the Federal Communications
Commission.
Celebrated as a visionary, thought leader, and published author,
Dr. Rothblatt is named "One of 100 Greatest Living Business Minds"
by Forbes and "Most Powerful LGBTQ+ People in Tech" by Business
Insider. Her pioneering book, Your Life or Mine: How Geoethics Can
Resolve the Conflict Between Private and Public Interests in
Xenotransplantation, anticipated the need for global virus
bio-surveillance and an expanded supply of transplantable organs.
She is also the recipient of a Lifetime Achievement Award from the
Maryland Tech Council.
Dr. Rothblatt is currently the inventor and co-inventor on nine
U.S. patents, with additional applications pending.
She earned her PhD in Medical Ethics with a thesis in
xenotransplantation from the Royal London College of Medicine and
Dentistry and earned her JD and MBA from UCLA. She also studied astronomy at the
University of Maryland College
Park.
About the University of Maryland School of
Medicine
Now in its third century, the University of
Maryland School of Medicine was chartered in 1807 as the
first public medical school in the United
States. It continues today as one of the fastest growing,
top-tier biomedical research enterprises in the world -- with 46
academic departments, centers, institutes, and programs, and a
faculty of more than 3,000 physicians, scientists, and allied
health professionals, including members of the National Academy of
Medicine and the National Academy of Sciences, and a distinguished
two-time winner of the Albert E.
Lasker Award in Medical Research. With an operating budget
of more than $1.2 billion, the School
of Medicine works closely in partnership with the University of Maryland Medical Center and Medical
System to provide research-intensive, academic, and clinically
based care for nearly 2 million patients each year. The School of
Medicine has more than $500 million
in extramural funding, with most of its academic departments highly
ranked among all medical schools in the nation in research funding.
As one of the seven professional schools that make up the
University of Maryland, Baltimore
campus, the School of Medicine has a total population of
nearly 9,000 faculty and staff, including 2,500 students, trainees,
residents, and fellows. The School of Medicine, which ranks as the
8th highest among public medical schools in research productivity
(according to the Association of American Medical Colleges profile)
is an innovator in translational medicine, with 606 active patents
and 52 start-up companies. In the latest U.S. News & World
Report ranking of the Best Medical Schools, published in 2023, the
UM School of Medicine is ranked #10 among the 92 public medical
schools in the U.S., and in the top 16 percent (#32) of all 192
public and private U.S. medical schools. The School of Medicine
works locally, nationally, and globally, with research and
treatment facilities in 36 countries around the world. Visit
medschool.umaryland.edu
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