The Life of Joseph Edward Murray

By damayantib

  • Joseph Edward Murray is born.

    Joseph Edward Murray is born in Milford, Massachusetts to parents William Andrew and Mary DePasquale-Murray.

  • Graduates high school.

    He graduated from high school in 1936. In high school he was very talented at baseball, swimming, tennis and science.

  • He attends college.

    Joseph Edward Murray attended College of the Holy Cross in Worcester, Massachusetts.

  • He attended Harvard University Medical School.

    After receiving a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) in humanities he went on to study at Harvard University Medical School.

  • He graduated from Harvard University Medical School.

    After 3 years, Joseph Edward Murray graduated from Harvard University Medical School.

  • Joseph Murray receives a medical degree and a surgical internship.

    Once Dr. Murray receieved his medical degree he began a sugrial internship with Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston. This hospital is linked to Harvard.

  • He joined the U.S. Army Medical Corps.

    He received a commission to join the U.S. Army Medical Corps and he worked at Valley Forge General Hospital in Pennsylvania as a plastic surgeon during World War II.

  • He got married.

    Joseph Edward Murray married Virginia Link who was a singer and pianist and he went on to have six children with her.

  • Became a permanant member of the Brigham and Women's Hospital's team of doctors.

    He began to study end-stage renal (kidney) disease(ESRD). During this time period they began studying kidney transplantations.
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    Worked as Chief of Plastic Surgery.

    He retired as chief of plastic surgery in Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston.
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    He performs kidney transplants at a slow rate.

    Due to the slow rates of transplants taking place, he chooses to research the immune system and why it rejects the unfamiliar organs.

  • He conducted the first successful kidney transplant.

    He performed the first successful kidney transplant between identical twins Ronal and Richard Herrick.

  • Dr. Murray begins to use the Main-Prehn strategy.

    He used small amounts of radiation to subdue the recipient's immune system so that the body would not fight the unknown organ.

  • Dr. Murray and other scientists develop Imuran, Azathioprine and Prednisone.

    Dr. Murray and other scientists from the Brigham Hospital studied immunosuppressive drugs to allow donors to donate organs to recipients who are not blood relatives.

  • He became a part of Harvard staff.

    He became a staff member at Harvard and a professor of surgery.
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    He worked as a plastic surgeon for children.

    He worked as a plastic surgeon at Children's Hospital Medical Center in Boston.

  • He won the Nobel Prize with Edward Donnal Thomas.

    They won the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine with bone marrow transplant.

  • Joseph Edward Murray dies at 97.

    Dr. Murray dies of a stroke in Boston's Brigham and Women's Hospital. The very hospital in which he performed his first kidney transplant.