About the Award:
This award is named after the clinician who developed and pioneered the technique of transvenous endomyocardial biopsy to assess for rejection after cardiac transplantation. Established in 1982 to encourage and reward original high quality research performed by trainees, residents, fellows, and graduate students, this $1,000 award is bestowed annually on the trainee/resident/fellow/student whose oral presentation is judged to be the best at the Caves Award Session at the Annual Scientific Meeting.
Eligibility criteria:
- Students / Residents / Fellows / Scientists in training who are first authors and presenters may elect to have their abstracts considered for shortlisting for the Caves Award at the time of abstract submission.
- Candidates for the award must be current members of the Society or be working under a current member of the Society.
- Anyone who has previously won the award is not eligible to apply.
The online abstract submission process includes an area to indicate that you wish to have your abstract considered for this award..
2017 Recipient:

Stephen Chiu, MD
Northwestern University, Chicago, IL, USA
"Donor-Derived Non-Classical Monocytes Recruit Recipient Neutrophils and Mediate Primary Lung Allograft Dysfunction"
Past Recipients:
2016 Corey E. Tabit, MD
"Increased Angiogenesis and Non-Surgical Bleeding in Patients with Continuous-Flow Left Ventricular Assist Devices Are Mediated by Thrombin-Induced Angiopoietin-2"
2015 Simon Pecha, MD
"Human Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells for Tissue Engineered Cardiac Repair"
2014 Jessica Spahn
"DAP12 Expression By Lung-Resident Macrophages Mediates Pulmonary Ischemia Reperfusion Injury By Promoting Neutrophil Extravasation"
2013 Alexey Dashkevich, MD
"Intracoronary Treatment with VEGF-C/D Inhibitor Enhances Cardiac Allograft Survival and Prevents Chronic Rejection by Regulating Lymphatic Endothelial Cell Activation"
2012 Simo Syrjälä, MD
"COMP-Ang1 Reduces Ischemia-Reperfusion Injury-Induced Microvascular Dysfunction and Chronic Rejection in Rat Cardiac Allografts"
2011 Ankit Bharat, MD
"Respiratory Viruses Convert CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Regulatory T-Cells (Tregs) into Th-17 Cells: Role in Promoting Autoimmunity and Chronic Lung Allograft Rejection"
2010 Tobias Deuse, MD, PhD
"Generation of Genetically Engineered Low Antigenicity MHC I Knock-Down Human Embryonic Stem Cells To Prevent Immune Rejection"
2009 Howard Huang, MD
"Deletion of Inhibitory¬ Kinase ¬ from Myeloid Cells Prevents Induction of Mouse Lung Allograft Acceptance"
2008 Satish N. Nadig, MD
"Ex Vivo Expanded Human Treg Inhibit the Development of Transplant Arteriosclerosis in a Humanized In Vivo Model"
2007 Heather E. Merry, MD
"Lipopolysaccharide Preconditioning Is Protective in Lung Ischemia Reperfusion Injury"
2006 Gregor Warnecke, MD
"Pulmonary Allograft Tolerance in Pigs Is Associated with Increased Frequency and Regulatory Function of CD4+CD25+ T Cells"
2005 Sigrid Sandner, MD
"Cd4+ Cd25+ Regulatory T Cells Mediate Antigen-Specificity in a Novel TCR Transgenic Model of Alloimmunity"
2005 Frank D'Ovidio, MD
"Donor Lung Surfactant Protein Gene Expression Predicts Early and Long-Term Outcome"
2004 M. D. Peterson, MD
"Gal_(1,3)-Galactose on Xenogeneic Endothelium Is a Putative Ligand for Human Monocytes"
2003 Sigrid Sandner, MD
"Visualization of Alloreactive CD4 T Cell Response and Tolerance Induction In Vivo"
2002 Peter Blaha, MD
"The Effects of Rapamycin and Cyclosporin A on Tolerance Induction Through Bone Marrow Transplantation With Costimulation Blockade"
2001 Alexander S. Krupnick, MD
"A Murine Model of Left Ventricular Tissue Engineering"
2000 Michael P. Fischbein, MD
"Signaling Through CD40 Can Replace the Requirements of CD4+ Lymphocytes in Cardiac Allograft Vasculopathy"
1999 Joerg Koglin, MD
"Stat4 – Mediated TH1 Responses Promote the Development of Graft Arteriosclerosis"
1998 Carla C. Baan, PhD
"Anti-CD25 Therapy Reveals the Redundancy of the Intragraft Cytokine Network After Clinical Heart Transplantation"
1997 Simon D. Eiref, MD
"Transplantation of Chimeric Hearts Suggest That Passenger Leukocytes Are Unnecessary for Rejection"
1996 Moninder S. Bhabra, MD
"Critical Importance of the First 10 Minutes of Lung Graft Reperfusion Following 24 Hour Storage"
1995 Elizabeth A. Davis, MD
"Inhibition of Neutrophil Chemotaxis/Adhesion and the Membrane Attack Complex of Complement Synergistically Prolong Cardiac Xenograft Survival"
1994 Jobst Winter, MD
"Defective BALT in Long-Term Surviving Rat Lung Allografts"
1994 Alain Chapelier, MD
"Pentoxifylline Reduces Lung Injury Associated with Ischemia Reperfusion"
1993 David Marshman, MD
"Outcome in Paired Recipients of Single Lung Transplants from the Same Donor"
1992 David P. Kapelanski, MD
"Lung Reperfusion Injury Is Reduced by Inhibiting a CD18 Dependent Mechanism"
1991 A. Jiminez, MD
"Noninvasive Radioisotopic Diagnosis of Acute Cardiac Rejection"
1990 Andres J. Duncan, MD
"Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Infection and Survival Following Heart-Lung and Double Lung Transplantation"
1989 A.M. Wood, MD
"Does Cystic Fibrosis (CF) Recur after Heart-Lung Transplantation (HLTx)?"
1988 Charles D. Fraser, Jr., MD
"Early 31P NMR Bioenergetic Changes Potentially Predict Rejection in Heterotopic Heart Allografts"
1987 Wim Van Der Bij, MD
"Antigen Test for Early Diagnosis of Active Cytomegalovirus Infection in Heart Transplant Recipients"
1986 Stuart J. Knechtle, MD
"Cardiac Xenograft Survival Using Total Lymphoid Irradiation and Cyclosporine"
1985 Michael A. Breda, MD
"Twenty-Four Hour Lung Preservation with Hypothermia and Leukocyte Depletion"
1984 Hermann Reichenspurner, MD
"Cytological and Immunological Monitoring – A Noninvasive Method for the Diagnosis of Rejection Episodes Under Cyclosporine Therapy"
1983 Robbin G. Cohen, MD
"Functional Evaluation of Syngeneic Lung Transplants in Rats"