Simon N. Chu, M.S. Recipient of Association for Academic Surgery Outstanding Medical Student Award

Simon N. Chu, M.S., a 4th Year UCSF medical student and a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Research Fellow in the laboratory of Qizhi Tang, Ph.D., has been awarded the 2019 Association for Academic Surgery Outstanding Medical Student Award at the 14^th Annual Academic Surgical Congress held in Houston, Texas on February 5-7, 2019. Chu is co-mentored by transplant surgeon Peter G. Stock, M.D., Ph.D. Chu is also a member of the PRIME Program in Medicine for the Urban Underserved.

Chu was selected to compete in the Association’s national medical student oral abstract presentation competition. Competitors were invited based on their submission as one of the top-10 scoring abstracts of the conference. Chu’s talk, entitled “Immunologic Profiling of Rejection Risk in HIV-Positive Solid Organ Transplant Recipients,” was selected by a panel of judges comprising the past-presidents of the AAS as the winner of this prestigious award. 

Chu’s research in the Transplantation Research Laboratory focuses on improving the safety and efficacy of solid-organ transplantation in persons living with HIV. People living with HIV have a higher incidence of morbidities from several conditions, including end-stage liver disease. While HIV infection was once considered an absolution contraindication for transplantations, surgeons at UCSF led the first large multi-site clinical trial of transplantation in people with HIV, opening the door for life-saving transplants in this patient population. However, HIV+ transplant recipients were found to have a 2-3 fold higher rejection rate compared to individuals without the virus.

Aiming to better understand this unexpected phenomenon, Chu identified immunological correlates and biological pathways responsible for enhanced acute cellular rejection in HIV+ recipients. These findings offer a window to understanding the complex immune system of HIV+ transplant recipients and may aid in the development of new immunosuppression strategies.  

About the Association for Academic Surgery

The Association for Academic Surgery is the world’s largest organization dedicated exclusively to the promotion of surgical research. The Association for Academic Surgery and Society of University Surgeons host the yearly Academic Surgical Congress, the premier gathering place for young surgeon-scientists in academic surgery.