2007 Recipient: Howard A. Reber, MD

Dr. Howard A. Reber was born and raised in Philadelphia, PA, where he received both his medical education and surgical training at the University of Pennsylvania. His clinical and research interests in pancreatic diseases date to that time. Since he finished his formal education in 1970, he has held academic appointments in a number of institutions including the University of California at San Francisco, the University of Missouri in Columbia, and the University of California at Los Angeles. At UCLA, he is Professor of Surgery, Chief of Gastrointestinal Surgery, and Director of the Ronald S. Hirshberg Pancreatic Cancer Research Laboratory. Dr. Reber is also the Director of UCLA's Center for Pancreatic Diseases. Over his career, his research has focused on pancreatic secretory physiology and the 3 principal pancreatic diseases (acute and chronic pancreatitis, and pancreatic cancer). He has devoted a significant amount of effort to the study of each. Using micropuncture techniques, he performed some of the first basic studies that confirmed the active role of the pancreatic ducts in pancreatic electrolyte secretion. He developed the concept of what became known as the pancreatic duct mucosal barrier, and an animal model of acute pancreatitis based on that idea. Some of this work helped to solidify the current thinking that the morbidity and mortality of severe acute pancreatitis in humans arises from the systemic response in the lungs and cardiovascular system, largely due to cytokine release from the pancreas and liver. In the area of chronic pancreatitis, he pursued the concept in both an animal model and in humans, that the pancreatic parenchyma is ischemic, and that ductal decompression operations return blood flow to normal. This may be important in pain relief for these patients. His most recent work concerns pancreatic cancer. Here he and his colleagues have investigated the relationships of tumor hypoxia, various angiogenic substances, and intracellular mechanisms that govern the biologic behavior of these malignancies.

Dr. Reber is widely sought after as a lecturer and visiting professor. He has written and edited a number of major textbooks and chapters on pancreatic diseases, especially pancreatic cancer. His research publications are in excess of 400 articles, abstracts and chapters. He has trained over 40 fellows in his laboratory, including a number from Japan, the United Kingdom, Germany, and Switzerland, as well as the United States. He has served as Vice President of the Society for Surgery of the Alimentary Tract, is a past president of the American Pancreatic Association, and served as its Executive Secretary and Treasurer for 20 years.

Past Recipients

2001: Vay Liang W. Go, M.D.
2002: Eugene P. DiMango, M.D.
2003: Dr. James D. Jamieson
2004: Dr. Paul D. Webster, III
2005: John A. Williams, MD, PhD
2006: Tadashi Takeuchi, MD, PhD and Phillip P. Toskes, MD