Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute is honoring the physician widely known as the leading pioneer in modern mitral heart valve repair, Alain Carpentier, MD, PhD, with the second annual Eliot Corday, MD, International Prize in Heart Research. The Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute established the Corday Prize to recognize physicians and scientists conducting groundbreaking research, or individuals who significantly advance the practice of heart medicine.
Carpentier is a leading surgeon, researcher, professor and 2007 recipient of the prestigious Albert Lasker Award for Clinical Medical Research. Carpentier is credited with taking valves from pigs and using them in humans, thus reducing or eliminating the need for patients to take blood thinners for the rest of their lives, as required for artificial valve patients.
During the Corday Prize ceremony, Carpentier will deliver a lecture to Cedars-Sinai physicians and researchers about xenotransplantation, the transfer of tissue or cells from one species to another.
Carpentier serves as president of Acad-mie des Sciences at the Institut de France and is an emeritus professor at the University Paris-Descartes and adjunct professor at Mount Sinai Medical School in New York.
"Carpentier's contributions to cardiology can be felt by patients worldwide," said Eduardo Marb-n, MD, PhD, director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and Mark S. Siegel Family Professor. "At Cedars-Sinai, where were have performed more minimally invasive heart valve procedures than any other U.S. medical center, we rely on Carpentier's pioneering work every day. Dr. Carpentier's legacy and commitment to heart health inspires all of us to continue working toward improving outcomes for patients with highly complex and challenging cardiac conditions."