Camillo Ricordi, M.D. is Professor of Surgery, Distinguished Professor of Medicine, Professor of Biomedical Engineering, and Microbiology and Immunology at the University of Miami (UM), Florida, where he serves as Chief of the Division of Cellular Transplantation, Department of Surgery, Director of the Cell Transplant Center and Director Emeritus of the Diabetes Research Institute (DRI).
Ricordi has been serving as Medical Director of the NIH funded cGMP (current Good Manufacturing Practices) Advanced Human Cell and Biologic Product Manufacturing Facility since 1993, that has been providing an invaluable service distributing human tissues, cells and other biologic products, for research and clinical applications at UM, in the US and worldwide. Acknowledged by his peers as one of the world’s leading scientists in diabetes cure-focused research, cell transplantation and regenerative medicine, Ricordi is well-known for inventing the machine that made it possible to isolate large numbers of islet cells (insulin-producing cells) from the human pancreas and for performing the first series of successful clinical islet allotransplants that reversed diabetes after implantation of donor purified islets into the liver of recipients with diabetes. The procedure is now used by laboratories performing clinical islet transplants worldwide. In addition to diabetes cure -focused research, Ricordi’s interests include the definition of anti-inflammatory nutrition, protective substances and regenerative medicine strategies, to prevent or treat chronic degenerative disease conditions, and to prolong healthy lifespan (Healthspan). Ricordi led the team that performed the first successful transplants of a bioengineered endocrine pancreas implanted within a 3D bioactive resorbable scaffold in the abdominal cavity of recipients with a severe form of Type 1 Diabetes and chaired for over a decade the steering committee of the first successful, NIH funded, FDA Phase 3 multicenter trial. He has also developed highly innovative strategies with the objective to transplant cells and organs without the continuous requirement for anti-rejection drugs and for the reversal of autoimmune disease conditions. He led the international team that successfully completed the first FDA approved double blind, randomized controlled trial to treat the most severe cases of COVID-19 with mesenchymal stromal cell infusions that resulted in 91% patient survival at one month compared to 42% survival in the control group. Ricordi has also launched the program www.Fit4Healthspan.org to help the general population become resistant to severe viral infections through nutrition, fitness and selected protective molecules. These strategies are now also studied to prevent or halt progression of autoimmune diseases and age related chronic degenerative conditions, to prolong healthy lifespan (healthspan).
He is currently serving as SC Chairperson and UM-DRI Principal Investigator of the stem cell derived islet transplant trials (Vertex; VX-880) and within an immune-isolating device (Vertex; VX-264) without anti-rejection drugs. Ricordi is also working with iTolerance towards the first trial of stem cell derived islets within a tolerance inducing microgel, without chronic recipient immunosuppression (proof of concept trial planned for 2025). Ricordi was founding president of the Cell Transplant Society and of the International Association for Pancreas and Islet Transplantation (IPITA) and served on the board of The Transplantation Society and the American Society of Transplant Surgeons. He served on the FDA Biologic Response Modifiers Advisory Committee, and has been serving on several NIH study sections, in addition to serving as an advisor/reviewer of several international funding agencies. Ricordi ranked as #1 world expert in transplantation of insulin producing cells for treatment of diabetes, for the decade 2008-2018 (expertscape), among over 4,000 surgeons, physicians and scientists evaluated, and was appointed to the Supreme Council of Health (Consiglio Superiore di Sanita’) by the Ministry of Health of Italy. He has also served on several editorial boards and is currently serving as Editor-in-Chief of European Reviews for Medical and Pharmacological Sciences. In 2023 he was awarded the Leonardo Da Vinci Award (co-shared with Nobel Prize winners Yamanaka and Semenza – Taormina TaoBuk) and the Venice Golden Lion Award. Ricordi also serves as President of the Board of ISMETT (Mediterranean Institute of Transplantation and Advanced Therapies and was appointed President of Fondazione Ri.MED by the Italian Prime Minister, for the 2013-2017 term, successfully completing the partnership with ISMETT for the creation of an unprecedented biotechnology center linked to ISMETT to foster clinical translation of novel therapeutics (http://www.fondazionerimed.eu/content/progetto-CBRB.aspx). Ricordi was founding president of The Cure Alliance and Chairman of the Diabetes Research Institute Federation, coordinating and promoting cure focused research at leading institutions worldwide. Ricordi serves as consultant and/or on the board of advisors of several non-profit foundations, government and federal agencies, venture capital and investment funds, as well as pharmaceutical and biotechnology corporations.
Ricordi contributed over 1,170 publications, that received over 54,000 citations, has 114 H-index and 28 patents awarded. In 2022 he published the Oscar Bestseller Mondadori book “IL CODICE DELLA LONGEVITÀ SANA” now available also in its English edition: “THE HEALTHSPAN CODE” (Amazon.com)
