Joseph E. MurrayBorn 1 Apr 1919; died 26 Nov 2012 at age 93. American surgeon who shared (with E. Donnall Thomas) the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1990 for discoveries concerning “organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease.” His work concerned how rejection following organ transplantation in man could be mastered. He first experienced tissue rejection when doing skin grafts as a plastic surgeon. In 1954, Murray was the first to successfully perform a human organ transplant. Richard Herrick, 23 years old, received a kidney from his homozygous twin brother. Also, Murray pioneered transplantation of kidneys obtained from deceased persons and showed that patients with terminal renal insufficiency could be cured. The field was then open for transplantation of other organs such as the liver, pancreas, heart or lungs.« |
