Accademia Nazionale di Medicina (AccMed) is a non-profit scientific association that has been involved in the training and updating of healthcare professionals since 1991. In 1994 it was recognized by the Ministry of Health as an 'institution suitable for providing technical-scientific consultancy regarding the updating and information of doctors on drugs', while in 1995 the Ministry of Education, University and Research recognized AccMed’s legal personality. AccMed is National CME Provider No. 31, founding member of the European Federation of Medical Academies (FEAM), represents Italy in the health and medicine section of the InterAcademy Partnership (IAP ), which brings together 149 academies from all over the world, and is a partner of the Unitelma Sapienza online university.

 

 

The Chiron International Award for Biomedical Research and Training, established in 1990 by the National Academy of Medicine, is awarded to scientists who have not only achieved significant results, but also been able to disseminate new knowledge in the medical field.

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The story of Chiron

Legend has it that Chiron, son of Cronos and Philira, was a mythological being half man and half horse endowed with extraordinary virtues. Unlike the other crude Centaurs, he had a mild nature and was endowed with a profound knowledge of many arts: music, astronomy, hunting, handling weapons and even medicine and surgery.

He would have carried out the first transplant in history, implanting Achilles with a new heel to replace the one the hero had burned. The very name of Chiron indicated a longer limb, thus hinting at the skill of the hand. The myth also tells us that on the occasion of the wedding between Thetis and Peleus, Chiron gave the latter a magical spear which had the virtue of healing those who had previously been wounded by it.

Chiron was the teacher of many gods and heroes of Greek mythology: Apollo, Dionysus, Castor and Pollux, Theseus and Asclepius, god and patron of medicine. Chiron, as the son of Cronus, was immortal. However, an incurable and extremely painful wound to his foot, caused by a thunderbolt soaked in the blood of the Hydra, pushed him to ask to die, giving up his immortality to Prométheus. Zeus then placed him in the sky in the constellation of Centaurus.

The mythical centaur, doctor and educator, therefore represents an ideal figure to name a scientific recognition.

Cronistoria dei premiati

1990

Anthony S. Fauci

Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institute of Health in Bethesda, world-renowned expert for his studies in the field of Immunology and AIDS.

1991

Stuart A. Aaronson

Head of the Laboratory of Cellular and Molecular Biology at the National Cancer Institute. His research on the v-sis oncogene established the first normal function of an oncogene and its role in growth factor signaling.

1992

Steven A. Rosenberg

Director of the Department of Surgery at the National Cancer Institute in Bethesda, he stood out for his studies on immunotherapy and gene therapy in the oncology field. His fame is linked in particular to the use of interleukin 2 in antineoplastic therapy.

1993

Herbert Pinedo

Director of Clinical Research at The Netherlands Cancer Institute and Head of the Oncology Department of the Free University Hospital in Amsterdam, he distinguished himself above all in the field of chemotherapy trials in oncology.

1994

Dame Sheila Sherlock

Director of the University of Hepatology at the Royal Free Hospital in London, you pioneered the use of needle liver biopsy, which is still used in the diagnosis of liver disease.

1995

Lucio Luzzatto

Director of the Department of Human Genetics at the Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in New York, he distinguished himself as a cutting-edge researcher in the fields of hematology, genetics and molecular biology.

1996

Mark Siegler

Director of the Center for Clinical Medical Ethics at the University of Chicago. He is one of the few doctors to have successfully combined his experience in the field of medical ethics with active medical practice.

1997

Thomas E. Starzl

Director of the Pittsburgh Transplant Institute (USA), he successfully performed a liver transplant in 1967, the first in the world. He was responsible for the development of new techniques in liver transplantation and the most important therapeutic combinations to combat rejection.

1998

L. Luca Cavalli-Sforza

Professor of Genetics at Stanford University, California, he dedicated over forty years of activity to research on the evolution of human populations: he used the information made available by reading the genetic heritage, combining it with data acquired from other sciences : archaeology, linguistics, anthropology, history, demography, statistics.

1999

Judah Folkman

Director at the Children's Hospital of Boston of the Department of Surgery first and of the Surgical Research Laboratory later, he made a great contribution to understanding the molecular mechanisms of angiogenesis which opened the way to therapeutic possibilities linked to inhibition or stimulation of angiogenesis for the treatment of various pathologies (tumors, cardiovascular diseases, etc.).

2000

Donald Metcalf

Director of the Cancer Research Unit and Assistant Director of the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research in Melbourne, he distinguished himself for his research on the control mechanisms of blood cells and leukemia cells.

2001

Bert Vogelstein

Professor of Oncology and Pathology with a position in Molecular Biology and Genetics at the School of Medicine of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore (USA), he distinguished himself for his studies on the molecular basis of human tumors which have had significant implications for the diagnosis and therapy of tumors and have made it possible to define a model for understanding their genesis in humans.

2002

Charles A. Dinarello

Professor of Medicine at the University of Colorado in Denver, United States. A scholar of the chemistry and biology of IL-1, he was responsible for the research group that first cloned the gene (the stretch of DNA that codes for IL-1 was the fifth human gene cloned).

2018

Armando Santoro

Director of the Cancer Center and Clinical Research of Humanitas in Milan. Full Professor and Director of the Specialty School of Oncology of Humanitas University. Member of the Scientific Committee of the Istituto Superiore di Sanità, member of the Commission for phase 1 studies of the ISS-AlFA, member of prestigious scientific societies, including the American Society of Clinical Oncology, Italian Sarcoma Group, Italian Association of Medical Oncology . Author of over 400 scientific publications in indexed international journals.

2018

Alberto Sobrero

Direttore U.O. Oncologia Medica, IRCCS A.O.U. San Martino IST - Istituto Nazionale per la Ricerca sul Cancro, Genova. È ed è stato ricercatore in Oncologia medica a Yale, Presidente del comitato di revisione del protocollo dell’EORTC, componente della faculty dei corsi di ricerca clinica ASCO-FECS, del comitato di redazione del Journal of Clinical Oncology, del comitato scientifico dell’ASCO, del comitato educativo dell’ESMO, Presidente del comitato di nomina dell’ESMO. È Presidente scientifico di ESMO 2017, Madrid, Spagna e membro del gruppo di lavoro ESMO Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale.

2018

Gerardo D’Amico

Responsabile del Settore Salute RAI - RAI News 24. Conduttore radiofonico e televisivo. Giornalista presso L’Espresso e Telemontecarlo, dal 1998 in RAI, vice-caporedattore redazione “speciali”, responsabile dell’informazione medico-scientifica per RaiNews 24, ideatore e conduttore della rubrica settimanale “Basta la salute”.

2019

Riccardo Dalla-Favera

Director of the Institute for Cancer Genetics at Columbia University in New York. Known internationally for his studies on the origin of human tumors and in particular lymphomas, he is considered one of the world's leading researchers and experts in tumor genetics, particularly for understanding the pathogenesis of B-cell lymphomas.

2019

Alberto Mantovani

Direttore Scientifico di Humanitas. Professore Emerito di Patologia Generale presso Humanitas University e presidente dell’International Union of Immunological Societies (IUIS). Ha contributo al progresso delle conoscenze nel settore immunologico formulando nuovi paradigmi e identificando nuove molecole e funzioni. Le analisi bibliometriche lo indicano come lo scienziato italiano più citato e uno degli immunologi più citati nella letteratura scientifica internazionale.

2022

Luigi Frati

Former professor of General Pathology and Molecular Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome. He has made significant contributions to studies on the Epidermal Growth Factor. Director of the Molecular Oncology Program of the CNR Oncology Finalized Project (1984-1993). Dean of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Rome La Sapienza (1990-2010) and Rector (2008-2014) of the same University. Founder of the National Academy of Medicine (1991). Scientific director of IRCCS Neuromed (since 1993).