1997 International Travel Fellowship
Alejandro Ruiz-Argüelles, MD, will receive the 19th annual award, sponsored by Becton Dickinson Vacutainer Systems, Becton Dickinson and Co.
Born in Puebla, Mexico, in 1952, he received his MD in 1976 from the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosi (Mexico). With fellowships from the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Teconología, from the Mayo Clinic and Research Foundation, and from the Fogarty International Center of the National Institutes of Health, he undertook postgraduate training in Medical Immunology at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México/Instituto Nacional de Nutrición (1976–1980) and at the University of Minnesota/Mayo Graduate School of Medicine (1980–1982). He was certified by the American Board of Medical Laboratory Immunology in 1982. Back in Mexico, Dr. Ruiz-Argüelles became a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 1988 and is registered in the National Researchers’ System as one of the 20 most-cited biomedical Mexican scientists. He served as a full member of the Scientific Division of the IFCC from 1989 to 1991, and as the Vice-Chairman of the same Division from 1992 to 1996. He is currently the Chair of the IFCC Scientific Division’s Committee on Standardization of Clinical Flow Cytometry and is an active member of the Scientific Advisory Committee of the International Society for Analytical Cytology.
Collaborating with Drs. Donato Alarcón-Segovia and Luis Lllorente, he pioneered an original research field related to the penetration of autoantibodies into living cells, and the multiple functional effects of this phenomenon. Regarded with skepticism by the scientific community in the late 1970s, their original observations have now been confirmed by several groups worldwide.
In the field of laboratory medicine, Dr. Ruiz-Argüelles has developed some analytical methods in hematology and coagulation, and his interest in flow-cytometric procedures has led him to promote the use of this technology in Latin America through delivering lectures and organizing courses and workshops. He summoned the 1st Latin American Consensus Conference for Immunophenotyping of Leukemia, the results of which might prove useful as guidelines for other developing regions of the world.
He has published 126 scientific articles, and has contributed 21 chapters in books. Several of his research contributions have received national and regional awards.
A faculty member at the University of the Américas and at the Universidad Popular Autónoma del Estado de Puebla, Dr. Ruiz-Argüelles is currently the Medical Director of Laboratorios Clínicos de Puebla, a private institution devoted to Laboratory Medicine in a very broad sense, where patient care, teaching, and research are all equally important.