John Belperio, MD, a physician-scientist dedicated to improving lung transplant outcomes, is the recipient of the 2024 UCLA Younes Nazarian Medical Humanitarian Prize, given annually to a UCLA Health practitioner whose clinical care, medical research and technological innovations advance humanity.
Dr. Belperio will speak about his work and accept the prize at a luncheon celebration on Thursday, Dec. 19.
“A generous gift like this allows you to be more creative and take chances with regard to your research, ultimately allowing for high-risk, high-reward experiments. This can lead to something extraordinary, like a novel medicine that helps millions of patients,” Dr. Belperio said in an interview. “Or it helps you get a publication about something incredibly interesting, and that gets picked up by another scientist and that becomes the piece to their puzzle that puts something together that then creates a new medication that goes on to help thousands or millions of patients.”
The Nazarian Prize, an award without restrictions, supports outside-the-box thinking, Dr. Belperio said, in ways that grants from the National Institutes of Health do not, since those are dedicated to more specific aims.
Dr. Belperio said he intends to use the prize to support research into how to preserve healthy lung tissue in patients who receive lung transplants.
Of all organ transplants, lung transplants have the most challenging outcomes, he said, because the lungs are constantly exposed to the environment in ways other organs aren’t. Breathing in viruses, bacteria and air pollution provokes an inflammatory response, which triggers the immune system to attack the new lung and reject it.
About 70% of lung transplant patients experience lung injury because of transplant-rejection processes within one year, Dr. Belperio said.
His aim is to discover how to extend survival times for people who receive lung transplants. Median survival is five or six years, he said. Ten percent to 15% of patients survive for 20 years. He is studying what allows those patients not to reject the transplant for clues as to how to manipulate the immune system to support longer survival.
“When we transplant younger patients, in their 20s to 50s, and you see a survival of six years, then having to give up life – we feel we can do better,” Dr. Belperio said. “We’ve got to be able to preserve the new normal lung within the recipient for many decades, not years. That’s my passion.”
Sharon Nazarian, PhD, president of the Younes & Soraya Nazarian Family Foundation, said her family established the Younes Nazarian Humanitarian Prize “to honor the memory of my father and his profound belief in the power of compassion and innovation to heal.”
Younes Nazarian, who died in 2022, was a businessman and dedicated philanthropist supporting education, arts and health in the United States and Israel.
"This prize honors his legacy and reflects our family’s commitment to improving lives, fostering progress, and inspiring others to work for the betterment of humanity,” Dr. Nazarian said in a statement. “On behalf of my family, I extend our heartfelt gratitude to the UCLA Medical Center – the doctors, nurses, and the entire staff – which has been a steadfast source of care and support for the community over the years. Their dedication to excellence in medical care and advancement is inspiring, and the selection of Dr. John Belperio is a true reflection of that commitment.”
“What a gift it is to be able to honor a UCLA Health physician, not only for their clinical excellence, but also for their kindness and compassion,” said Johnese Spisso, president of UCLA Health and CEO of the UCLA Hospital System. “It’s unique and very meaningful for everyone involved.”
Previous recipients of the Nazarian Prize include Anjay Rastogi, MD, PhD, director of the UCLA Health CORE Kidney Program, and David Reuben, MD, chief of the Division of Geriatrics Medicine at UCLA Health and Younes Nazarian’s former physician.
Dr. Reuben “was the inspiration for this prize,” Dr. Nazarian said, “as his extraordinary dedication and compassionate approach to care exemplify the ideals we seek to celebrate.”
Dr. Belperio said he’s humbled to be recognized for his work to improve the lives of lung transplant recipients – something he thinks about all the time.
“When you're taking a shower at night, that's what you're thinking about: How can I fix this problem, what is the next step needed to prevent rejection?” he said. “We want to give back to society in trying to fix diseases that presently can’t be fixed. We must accelerate our sciences to help these lung transplant recipients.”