Joseph E. Murray

Facts

Joseph E. Murray

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Joseph E. Murray
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 1990

Born: 1 April 1919, Milford, MA, USA

Died: 26 November 2012, Boston, MA, USA

Affiliation at the time of the award: Brigham and Women's Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

Prize motivation: “for their discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation in the treatment of human disease”

Prize share: 1/2

Work

The human body has many different organs with different tasks. If an organ is unable to perform its task, a person cannot live normally without external help. Because the immune system rejects foreign bodies, transferring organs from one person to another was long thought impossible. However, in 1954 Joseph Murray avoided rejection using radiotherapy and immunosuppressants, successfully transplanting a kidney between identical twins. This paved the way for other organ transplants.

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