Joseph Edward Murray

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Joseph Edward Murray (born April 1, 1919 in Milford , Massachusetts , † November 26, 2012 in Boston , Massachusetts) was an American surgeon and pioneer of kidney transplantation . In 1990 he and E. Donnall Thomas received the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for the "introduction of the method of transferring tissue and organs as a clinical treatment practice in human medicine ".

Life

Joseph Edward Murray was born in Milfort, the son of the lawyer William Murray and his wife, the teacher Mary, née DePasquale. He had a happy childhood and attended general education schools in his hometown. Already during his high school days he wanted to become a doctor. In his spare time he was an enthusiastic all-round athlete, liked to read and a lot. He had applied to the Holy Cross Collage in Worchester / Massachusetts for his study goal. During the entrance exam, he was asked why he had chosen this particular university. He replied that the free development of science and excellent knowledge transfer were very important to him. Thereupon he was accepted.

Murray studied at Holy Cross College (Bachelor 1940) and Harvard Medical School (graduated in 1943). During his time at Harvard University, he found the practice of operations "exciting and exciting". But what fascinated him most was research. Two of his teachers, the surgeon Francis Daniels Moore (1913–2012) and the endocrinologist George W. Thorn (1906–2004) had a particular influence on his professional career during this time. He graduated with "distinction". After graduation and two internships at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital and the Children's Hospital in Boston, he joined the US Army in the Medical Corps in 1944.

Joseph Murray had been married to his wife Bobby, nee Link, since 1945. The marriage later had six children.

In the US Army, Joseph Murray was stationed at Vally Forge General Hospital near Philadelphia. Mainly war victims with severe burns and disfiguring wounds were treated here. He was the youngest doctor in his department, plastic reconstructive surgery. During this time he carried out numerous skin implantations and worked closely with surgeons Dr. James Barret Brown (1899–1971) and Bradfort Cannon (1907–2005) together. He found out that the immune system of patients can be temporarily manipulated and that this enables the body to accept the transplants over the long term. He was deeply impressed by the will and spirit of the patients treated there, who lived by courage and faith, the will and spirit of the patients treated there. Returning from the US Army in 1947, he completed general surgical and plastic surgery training at Brigham Hospital and Children's Hospital . He then completed this in New York in the field of plastic-reconstructive surgery with Dr. Hayes Martin and Dr. Herb Conway.

In 1951, Joseph Murray opened a private general and plastic surgery practice at Brigham Hospital. In doing so, he increasingly gained a reputation as an expert in the surgical treatment of aggressive neck and head tumors. At that time, Dr. Thorn and later Dr. Moore conducted an experimental kidney transplant program at this hospital. And he was offered the opportunity to work on this program at Harvard Surgical Research Laboratory. After careful consideration, he said, especially out of respect for the achievements of Dr. Thorn and Dr. Moore, too. However, when one of the leaders of the Korean War project was called up, Murray took over the management of the laboratory. The team around him had found that reimplants in dogs (i.e. with the same organ that had previously been removed) worked without rejection. They therefore believed that it is similar in humans. But without having a way to control immune rejection, they didn't want to take that risk. Similar experiences have been made in the area of ​​skin implantation. When Richard Herrick, a patient with acute kidney failure, was admitted to Brigham Hospital with his twin brother on October 26, 1954, the doctors performed several tests to confirm his genetic identity. But when the acute condition worsened drastically, Murray's team decided to have a transplant on December 23rd. The operation went without complications and the patient lived until 1962. In 1956, Murray transplanted a kidney from her twin sister to Edith Helm, who was then 21 years old. The recipient recovered well after the operation, gave birth a year later and did not die until 2011 at the age of 76.

These first successes could be repeated by the medical team on January 14, 1959, now with a genetically not identical twin brother. Murray had been able to suppress the rejection process with massive X-rays. The patient lived here for another 30 years. But the riddle of possible immune rejection was not yet solved. Murray and his colleagues did intensive research into a chemical substance that would give them a guarantee that the patient's body did not experience rejection reactions. This was Joseph Murray's third achievement to have found such a means. In close collaboration with the biochemists George Herbert Hitchings (1905–1998) and Gertrude Belle Elion (1918–1999) it was possible to find possible substances that positively influence this process. They tested more than 20 derivatives and came to the conclusion that the substance azathioprine had the best properties for this. But it was not until 1962 that the appropriate composition and dosage were found that made the risk of such operations more predictable. With this, Murray succeeded in transplanting through immunosuppression even in genetically not identical people. To do this, the patient's immune defense against the donor organ had to be suppressed

The results of this work were then presented in 1962 at the first international conference on human kidney transplantation, which was hosted by the National Academy of Science and the National Research Council. This conference was chaired by Joseph Murray. At this conference, which was attended by leading experts from several countries, the English transplant expert Peter Brian Medawar (1915–1987) suggested setting up a kidney transplant registry. That was the forerunner of today's UNOS register (United Network for Organ Sharing). Murray became the director of this register. In 1962 he received the Francis Amory Prize of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences , in 1963 the gold medal of the International Association of Surgeons and in 1990 the Lifetime Achievement Award of the National Kidney Foundation and the Nobel Prize, and in 1991 the medal of the American Surgical Association. From 1963 to 1971 he was co-editor of the Journal of Transplantation .

In the mid-1960s, Joseph Murray gradually changed his focus of work and increasingly concentrated on topics and research developments in the field of plastic surgery. Together with Dr. Leonard Swanson carried out the first complete, one-step correction of a facial deformation associated with Crouzon's syndrome on August 18, 1966. This operation and the subsequent healing process were successful. To this end, he had come to an understanding in advance with the surgeon Paul Tessier (1917–2008), who practiced in the same field in France, and adopted the technique Tessier then practiced. In the years that followed, both were linked by a close collaboration and personal friendship. In 1971 Murray resigned as head of kidney transplantation at Birgham Hospital in order to be able to take care of the development of plastic surgery even more intensively. In this field he has held visiting professorships in India, Iran and other countries. From 1964 to 1986, he headed plastic surgery at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital (later Brigham and Women's Hospital) in Boston. He was also the head of plastic surgery at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston from 1972 to 1985. From 1970 to 1986 he was Professor of Surgery at Harvard Medical School .

From 1964 to 1965 he was president of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons. He was a member of the Institute of Medicine at the National Academy of Sciences . In 1983 he was Vice President of the American Cancer Society and 1983–84 Vice President of the American College of Surgeons. He was a Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England and, since 1992, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences .

In 1985, Murray suffered a severe stroke at the age of 66. From this he was able to recover quite well. However, from this point on, he resigned from all tasks of direct patient care. He now concentrated primarily on his lectures, gave lectures and did administrative work in his retained offices. In December 1990, together with the pioneer of stem cell transplantation Edward Donnall Thomas (1920–2012), he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Medicine in Stockholm for his work in the field of organ and tissue transplantation. He made the prize money for this award available to the institutions that had so significantly influenced his professional development. It went to Harvard Medical School, Brigham Hospital, and Children's Hospital. He completed his autobiography in 2009 under the title "Surgery of the Soul" and it was published the following year.

On Thanksgiving evening 2012, Murray suffered a stroke in the circle of his family. He was then admitted to the Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and received medical treatment there. On November 26, 2012, at the age of 93, he succumbed to the consequences of this stroke. The funeral service for him took place on December 1st at St. Paul's Church in Wellesley / Massercusetts. According to his request, Louis Armstrong's trumpet solo "What a wonderful world" was played at the end of the ceremony . That was entirely in keeping with Joseph Murray's view of life.

Works

  • JE Murray, JP Merrill, JH Harrison: Renal homotransplantation in identical twins. In: Surg Forum. 1955.
  • JP Merrill, JE Murray, JH Harrison et al .: Successful homotransplantation of the kidney between non-identical twins. In: N Engl J Med. 1960.
  • JE Murray, JP Merrill, JH Harrison and others: Prolonged survival of human kidney allografts by immunosuppressive drug therapy. In: N Engl J Med. 1963.
  • Murray JE, Swanson LT: Mid-face osteotomy and advancement for craniosynostosis. In: Plastic Reconstruct Surg. 1968.
  • JE Murray: Finding creativity in adversity. In: Harv Med Alumni Bull. 1986–1987.
  • JE Murray: Surgery of the Soul. Reflections on a Curious Career. In: Science History Publications / USA. 2001.

literature

  • Peter Morris : Joseph E. Murray (1919-2012). In: Nature . Volume 493, No. 7431, 2012, p. 164, doi: 10.1038 / 493164a
  • PI Terasaki: History of transplantation: thirty-five recollections. UCLA Tissue Typing Laboratory, Los Angeles 1991, pp. 121-143.
  • Antony P. Monaco: Joseph Edward Murray, MD 1919–2012, transplant, reconstructive plastic surgery pioneer and scientist. In: Transplantation Journal. Volume 95, Issue 7, April 15, 2013 ,.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Transplant doc, Nobel winner Murray dies in Boston. Retrieved November 27, 2012 .
  2. ^ A b Antony P. Monaco: Joseph Edward Murray, MD 1919–2012, pioneer in transplantation, reconstructive plastic surgery and scientist. In: Transplantation Journal. Volume 95, Issue 7, April 15, 2013, pp. 903ff.
  3. ↑ Joseph E. Murray, John P. Merrill , J. Hartwell Harrison: Renal homotransplantation in identical twins. In: Surgical Forum. Volume 6, 1955, pp. 432-436.
  4. ↑ Transplant pioneer Joseph Murray is dead. In: Spiegel Online. November 27, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2012 .
  5. ^ Nobel Prize for Pioneering Courage. In: FAZ . November 28, 2012, p. 28.
personal data
SURNAME Murray, Joseph Edward
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Murray, Joseph
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American physician and Nobel Prize winner
DATE OF BIRTH April 1, 1919
PLACE OF BIRTH Milford , Massachusetts
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 2012
Place of death Boston