Royalty Honors David Warburton

By Steve Rutledge on July 14, 2009 8:20 AM

David Warburton, professor of pediatrics and surgery at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and professor of craniofacial biology at the School of Dentistry, received the insignia of an officer in the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (OBE) from the Princess Royal, acting on behalf of Queen Elizabeth II in ceremonies at Buckingham Palace on June 24.

The ceremony was followed by a celebratory champagne and strawberry tea party at the Dorchester Hotel in London.

“This is indeed a great honor,” said Warburton, adding “but the Brits are an irreverent lot. They say it’s given for Other Bloke’s Efforts (OBE). This means I owe a great debt of gratitude to everyone in the collective Childrens Hospital Los Angeles and USC family, and the honor is really for them.”

The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry that was established in 1917 by King George V. The British monarch is sovereign of the Order and appoints all other members of the Order (on advice of the government). The honor is given for conspicuous civil or military services to Britain and is awarded to Britons and foreigners from all walks of life. It is among the highest honors a Brit can receive from the sovereign.

Warburton, director of the Developmental Biology and Regenerative Medicine Program at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, was accompanied at the ceremonies by his wife, Leslie, an early childhood special educator specializing in autism; his daughter, Nicole, a recent graduate of the University of Miami who will attend the pre-med program at USC this fall; and his brother, Michael, a private security consultant, recently retired from the Special Branch at Scotland Yard.

Warburton leads a team of 60 researchers in developmental biology, regenerative medicine and surgery at The Saban Research Institute of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, where they are engaged in studies on organ development and regeneration, as well as different tissue engineering solutions for lung, kidney, bladder, liver and diabetes.

In 2007, he was inducted as a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, an honor bestowed upon him for his services to surgical research. He also was elected as a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh in October 1996.

Warburton earned a bachelor’s degree in physiology from the University of London and a medical degree from St. Thomas’ Hospital Medical School in London.

He served a pediatric residency at Children’s Hospital Boston), with a simultaneous clinical fellowship in pediatrics at Harvard University Medical School. He also was a fellow in neonatal-perinatal medicine at the Women and Infants Hospital of Rhode Island at Brown University. He earned a doctorate of science degree in London in 2000.

He has authored more than 200 peer-reviewed and invited articles, reviews and editorials. His major discoveries have included the correct amount of fluid resuscitation for premature babies; how maternal diabetes affects the fetal lung; how the lung develops during embryonic and fetal life (what stimulates and inhibits the process; and better ways to protect, stimulate healing and induce regeneration of lung tissue).

Warburton resides in La Cañada-Flintridge with his wife and their three children — Nicole, Andrew and Christopher.

TAGS: medicine

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