AST honors Dr. Mohamed H. Sayegh with lifetime achievement award

The American Society of Transplantation has named Dr. Mohamed H. Sayegh its 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award recipient, the society’s highest honor. The award recognizes his decades of work in transplant science, mentorship and leadership in the U.S., Lebanon and globally.

Why it matters: - The American Society of Transplantation’s Lifetime Achievement Award is the society’s highest honor. - The award recognizes people whose work has fundamentally shaped transplantation. - Dr. Mohamed H. Sayegh is the first person to receive the AST Basic Science Established Investigator Award, the AST Mentoring Award and the AST Lifetime Achievement Award.

What happened: - The American Society of Transplantation named Dr. Mohamed H. Sayegh the recipient of the 2026 AST Lifetime Achievement Award. - AST announced the recognition on June 23, 2026. - Dr. Sayegh’s career spans clinical care, research, mentorship, leadership and global health.

The details: - Dr. Sayegh earned his medical degree with distinction from the American University of Beirut. - He completed residency training at the Cleveland Clinic. - He completed fellowship training at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital. - He became a professor of medicine at Harvard and held the Warren E. Grupe and John P. Merrill Endowed Chair in Transplantation Medicine. - His research focused on transplantation immunobiology, especially immune tolerance and co-stimulation. - His work helped advance understanding of immune mechanisms in transplantation and influenced modern transplant care. - He has more than 350 publications and tens of thousands of citations. - AST gave him the Basic Science Established Investigator Award in 2010. - He was the first recipient of the AST Mentoring Award. - He served as AST president from 2000 to 2001. - He held multiple other leadership roles across AST committees and initiatives. - His leadership helped shape the American Transplant Congress. - In 2009, he returned to Lebanon and the American University of Beirut. - He led the AUB Medical Center 2020 Vision initiative. - The initiative aimed to improve patient care, medical education and biomedical research across Lebanon and the broader Middle East. - He now serves as Senior Advisor to the Director of the National Institutes of Health. - In that role, he supports international research collaborations across the Middle East, North Africa and other regions. - Dr. Sayegh is married to Dr. Samia J. Khoury, a neurologist and multiple sclerosis specialist who directs the Neuroscience Institute at the American University of Beirut. - The couple has two children. - Dr. Sayegh also published a private collection of Arabic poetry during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Between the lines: - The award underscores how transplantation now values not only laboratory discovery but also mentorship, institution-building and international collaboration. - Dr. Sayegh’s career connects U.S. academic medicine, Lebanese healthcare leadership and global research networks. - AST is signaling that its top honors can reflect impact across science, training and service, not just one area of achievement.

What's next: - AST will continue recognizing leaders whose work advances transplantation research, care and training. - Dr. Sayegh is expected to remain active in global health and research collaboration through his NIH advisory role. - His recognition may further spotlight cross-border work in transplantation, especially in the Middle East and North Africa.

The bottom line: - Dr. Mohamed H. Sayegh’s honor reflects a career that helped define modern transplantation through science, mentorship and leadership.