M. Roy First, M.D. is Chief Medical Officer at Transplant Genomics, Inc. Prior to that he was Vice President and Therapeutic Area Leader, Transplantation at Astellas Pharma Global Development, Inc. After graduating from medical school at the University of Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, South Africa, he moved to Chicago, Illinois, USA, in 1972 to take up the position of Renal Research Fellow at the Michael Reese Hospital. In 1974, he was appointed Assistant Professor of Medicine in the Division of Nephrology at the University of Cincinnati, Ohio, USA, later becoming full Professor and Director of the Section of Transplantation, a position that he held until 2002, when he moved to Fujisawa. During his distinguished academic career, Dr First has published 389 articles on transplantation, as well as 39 book chapters. In addition, he has held many professional and university committee appointments. He is a past President of the American Society of Transplant Physicians and has served on many United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) committees, including chairing the Organ Donation Committee, on the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research of the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), as a reviewer for the National Institutes of Health (NIH), on the NIH Data Safety and Monitoring Board for Clinical Trials in Transplantation, and as a Councilor of the Transplantation Society. In addition, he has served on the editorial boards of a number of journals including Transplantation, Transplantation Proceedings, the American Journal of Transplantation, and the Journal of the American Society of Nephrology. He is the American Society of Transplantation recipient of the 2013 AST Lifetime Achievement Award. Specialties: Board certified in Internal Medicine and in Nephrology.