Timeline: Technological Advances in Organ Transplantation

Dec 7, 1905

First successful human tissue transplant

First successful cornea transplant by Eduard Zirm

Jan 1, 1912

Nobel Prize for new suturing techniques

Alexis Carrel wins the 1912 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for skilful anastomosis operations, his new suturing techniques, which laid the groundwork for later transplant surgery.

Jan 1, 1951

Link between immunosuppressive drugs and organ rejection

Identifying the immune reactions in 1951 Peter Medawar suggested that immunosuppressive drugs could be used to counter organ rejection.

Dec 23, 1954

First successful organ transplant

Joseph Murray and J. Hartwell Harrison performed the first successful transplant, a kidney transplant between identical twins, in 1954, successful because no immunosuppression was necessary in genetically identical twins.

Jan 1, 1962

First successful replantation surgery

Ronald A. Malt re-attaches a severed limb and restoring (limited) function and feeling.

Dec 3, 1967

First successful heart transplant

Christiaan Barnard in Cape Town, South Africa succeeds with Louis Washkansky, who survived for eighteen days.

Jan 31, 1970

Discovery of cyclosporine

Discovery of cyclosporine allowed for transplant surgery to utilize a sufficiently powerful immunosuppressive.

Mar 9, 1981

First successful heart-lung transplant

The first successful heart-lung transplant took place at Stanford University Hospital. The head surgeon, Bruce Reitz, credited the patient's recovery to cyclosporine-A.