On 23 December 1954, the first successful organ transplantation was accomplished by a team of scientists and clinicians, including Joseph Murray, who was awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for that breakthrough procedure.1 It was performed at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston. The surgery, captured in the photograph on the opposite page, involved transferring a kidney from Ronald Herrick to his identical twin, Richard. Having both donor and recipient genetically identical reduced the risk of adverse immune reactions and eliminated the chance of organ rejection.
In subsequent years, immune suppressive medicines enabled organ transplantation from genetically unrelated donors. In 1968 a Harvard University ad hoc committee on brain death (a neurological criterion for organ donation) recommended that individuals who have irreversible loss of brain function can be considered deceased.2 The same year, the Uniform Law Commission drafted the Uniform Anatomical Gift Act, a regulatory framework for organ donation. Ever since, numerous types of organs—including heart, lung, liver, and pancreas—have been transplanted.
Despite remarkable advances in organ transplantation, the shortage of organ donors and the large number of patients who need a replacement have produced long waiting lists, which puts patients’ lives at risk. The shortage inspired one of us (Langer) and Joseph Vacanti to introduce tissue engineering in the 1980s and early 1990s, wherein physical sciences, cell biology, and chemical engineering would be used to regenerate human tissues and eventually organs.3 To that end, new hope has dawned for patients with end-stage organ failure.
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