letter-Ts

To whom it may concern:

I am writing to support Dr. Ping Zhou's petition for permanent residency in the United States of America. I have known Dr. Zhou for almost 5 years, when I hired him in early 1997 as a Research Associate in the Section of Transplant Surgery at the University of Chicago. By way of background, I have been a faculty member of the Medical School at the University of Chicago for over 17 years and hold the position of Professor in the Department of Surgery and on the Committee on Immunology. I personally have performed more than 600 kidney transplants, 200 liver transplants and 100 pancreas transplants and have trained multiple other surgeons in transplantation. In addition, I have authored more than 200 academic research articles, have been the recipient of several research grants from the National Institutes of Health, and have served on the NIH study section that reviews all extramural funding in transplant research. Please see my enclosed Curriculum Vitae for further details of my qualifications.

Transplantation is an area of rapidly growing importance in medicine, and the University of Chicago is one of the leading academic institutions in both clinical organ transplantation and transplant immunology research. In excess of 20,000 organ transplants are performed annually in the U.S., but the supply of organs in our country is unable to keep up with the demand. Thus, there are currently over 90,000 U.S. citizens awaiting organ transplantation. Not only are there not enough organs, but because of rejection, many of the organs that are transplanted successfully ultimately fail, requiring some people to need repeated transplants. Even when transplants are successful, recipients must take daily doses of medications to reduce their immunity to prevent rejection. These same medications, although live saving, cause many complications because of their effect on immunity, often leading to life-threatening infections or cancer. Thus, research to prevent transplant rejection and to allow recipients to stop needing to continue to take such toxic medications is imperative. Dr. Zhou is an accomplished researcher in transplant immunology. In the last five years, he has become an integral and vital part of our transplant immunology research effort here at the University of Chicago.
When I hired Dr. Zhou as a Research Associate, I was most impressed with his qualifications. He holds both M.D. and Ph. D. from the Tongji Medical University in China. Following his residency training in surgery at the same institution, he was asked to continue on the faculty, rising to the position of Associate Professor and Vice Director of the Institute of Organ Transplantation of the Tongji Medical University. This is the largest research and clinical transplant center in China. While he was in China, Dr. Zhou's research on organ transplantation was well funded by the National Natural Sciences Foundation and the Foundation of Ministry of Public Health, and resulted in frequent publications in respected journals in the Chinese medical literature.

I was also impressed by the exceptional skill that Dr. Zhou possesses as a microsurgeon, that is, a surgeon who, with the use of a microscope, is able to operate on very small structures. Thus, for example, Dr. Zhou is able to perform a heart transplant in an animal as small as a mouse. Researchers with his qualifications are in great demand as there are simply very few microsurgeons in the United States with skill and experience equivalent to Dr. Zhou's available to perform needed research. Microsurgical skill is exceptionally important for transplant immunology because so much is already known about the genetics of the murine immune response so that it has become the primary model for human transplantation.

Dr Ping Zhou is a talented researcher. He is the only microsurgeon in my department able to develop critical surgical models in mice used in the studies in transplantation and transplant immunology. Our research in murine organ transplantation depends heavily on his work. Without Dr. Zhou's ability to perform experimental transplants in mice, much of the research of our transplant immunology group here at the University of Chicago could not be performed. As important as his delicate microsurgery skills are, his knowledge in transplantation and immunology, his advanced experience in experimental studies in this field, and his creative thinking and ability all contribute greatly to our research efforts. Dr Zhou's combination of broad knowledge and experience in transplant research make him an exceptionally unique researcher. I believe that Dr. Zhou is one of very few researchers with microsurgical and transplant research skills whose work has and will contribute significantly to our understanding of how to prevent organ transplant rejection. This will directly benefit the citizens of the United States and help maintain the role of the U.S. transplant community as the world leader in this crucial medical field.

In the five years that Dr. Zhou has been a member of our research group at the University of Chicago, he have presented his research work in the combined annual scientific meeting of AST (American Society of Transplantation) and ASTS (America Society of Transplant Surgeons) every year. He has won the prestigious Young Investigator Award from the ASTS (American Society of Transplant Surgeons). More importantly, he has authored ten papers in peer-reviewed respected English language scientific journals. For four of these he was the first author, meaning that he was the member of our group who was primarily responsible for the published findings. His excellent work has also resulted his acceptance of membership of two American and two international academic associations, the International Society of Experimental Microsurgery, the Transplantation
Society (International), the American Society of Transplantation, and the American Association of Immunologists

In summary, Dr. Ping Zhou is very important to our research groups' continuing success. He is a highly valued scientist with potential to continue to make important contributions to U.S. health care. On a personal note, I would like to add that, in all my interactions with Dr. Zhou, he has conducted himself as a gentleman and demonstrated the utmost integrity. Although I am obviously not the one to make the decision and am certainly premature in my desire, I would ultimately like to see him become an American citizen, not only because I believe that we should continue to attract individuals with exceptional skills and intelligence, but also because Dr. Zhou is the type person whom I would be proud to have as a citizen of my country. I greatly appreciate your thoughtful and positive consideration of Dr Zhou's petition for permanent residence.

Sincerely

James R. Thistlethwaite, Jr., M.D., Ph.D.