Dr. Joseph E. Murray, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine in 1990, is well known for his pioneering work on kidney transplants and research on immunosuppression. Dr. Murray has also had a long and distinguished career in facial reconstruction and many other aspects of plastic surgery. Along with his surgical accomplishments, Dr. Murray, like Drs. Kazanjian and Cannon, has been a strong and effective advocate for the advancement of plastic surgery as a respected specialty in Boston.
Joseph E. Murray was born in 1919 in Milford, Massachusetts. He graduated from Holy Cross College in 1940 and went on to attend Harvard Medical School, receiving his M.D. in 1943. Immediately after graduation he interned at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. In 1944, Dr. Murray was inducted into the Medical Corps of the United States Army and assigned to the plastic unit at the Valley Forge General Hospital, where he met Dr. Bradford Cannon and began his career as a plastic surgeon.
Dr. Murray left the military in 1947 and returned to the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. The Brigham had no formal residency established for plastic surgery, and thus Dr. Murray, upon completion of his general surgical residency, went to New York City for specific training in plastic surgery at the New York and Memorial Hospitals. In 1951, Dr. Murray returned to the Brigham Hospital, joining the surgical staff there. During his experience at the Valley Forge General Hospital, Dr. Murray became interested in the challenges of skin grafting and tissue transplantation. This led to his interest in organ transplant surgery. Upon his return to Boston in 1951, Dr. Murray joined a team of researchers based at the Harvard Medical School and the Brigham Hospital to pursue his interests in solving the problems presented by transplantation. In 1954, he presented techniques to the Boston Surgical Society concerning reconstruction after surgery for head and neck cancer. In the mid- 1960s, Dr. Murray developed new techniques for craniofacial reconstruction.
The training of plastic surgeons flourished under Dr. Murray; today all of Boston's major hospitals train plastic surgeons. Dr. Murray served as the chief plastic surgeon at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital, which later became Brigham and Women's Hospital, until 1986. He also served as the chief plastic surgeon at Children's Hospital from 1972-1985. Dr. Murray served on the faculty of Harvard Medical School, where he retired as Professor of Surgery Emeritus in 1986. Dr. Murray also has served as regent of the American College of Surgeons, chairman of the American Board of Plastic Surgery, and president of the American Association of Plastic Surgeons. In 1990, Dr. Murray became the first plastic surgeon to win the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine, helping to assure plastic surgery's place in medicine and surgery.
"During my army service, we always had many burned patients to care for. Some were so extensively burned that donor sites for skin autografts were not available. As a life-saving measure for these patients, skin grafts were taken from other persons and used as a temporary surface cover. The slow rejection of the foreign skin grafts fascinated me. How could the host distinguish another person's skin from his own? Colonel (Dr. James Barrett) Brown and I often discussed this while scrubbing. In civilian life Brown had treated many severely burned patients with temporary skin allografts and observed and written about the differential dissolution of skin allografts from various donors. He tentatively postulated that the closer the genetic relationship between the skin donor and the recipient, the slower the dissolution of the graft. In 1937, he had experimentally cross skin grafted a pair of identical twins and documented permanent graft survival in both twins. This was the impetus to my study of organ transplantation."
Dr. Murray's observation about the challenges presented by transplantation illustrates the link between plastic surgery and organ transplantation.
In December 1954, Dr. Murray performed the world's first successful kidney transplant between the identical Herrick twins at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. In 1959, he performed the world's first successful allograft and, in 1962, the world's first cadaveric renal transplant. Throughout the following years Dr. Murray became an international leader in the study of transplantation biology, the use of immunosuppressive agents, and studies on the mechanisms of rejection. As Director of the Surgical Research Laboratory at Harvard Medical School and Peter Bent Brigham Hospital for twenty years, he trained others who became leaders in transplant surgery and biology throughout the world.
This photograph shows the first successful kidney transplantation.
Gift of Joseph E. Murray, M.D. to the National Archives of Plastic Surgery in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 2001.
The Herrick Twins, Ronald and Richard, recipient and donor of the first successful organ transplant, are pictured here with their physicians.
Gift of Joseph E. Murray, M.D. to the National Archives of Plastic Surgery in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 2001.
Gift of Joseph E. Murray, M.D. to the National Archives of Plastic Surgery in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 2001.
Pictured here on the Quad of Harvard Medical School in 1961 are dogs living with transplanted kidneys. This research contributed to the development of immunosuppression drugs.
Gift of Joseph E. Murray, M.D. to the National Archives of Plastic Surgery in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 2001.
According to Dr. Murray, "The interface of disciplines is where progress
is made."
In 1966, Dr. Murray performed the first mid-face advancement in the United States,
and thus began his contributions to the new field of craniofacial surgery. He
later established the craniofacial program at Children's Hospital. The correction
of craniofacial deformities requires the knowledge of a varity of specialists.
In addition to plastic surgeons, the program includes neurosurgeons, psychiatrists,
otolaryngologists, oral surgeons, orthodontists, general dentists, radiologists,
social workers and vocational counselors.
Published in 1971 in Surgical Clinics of North America, this article, written by Joseph E. Murray , M.D., Lennard T. Swanson, D.M.D., Melvin Cohen, D.M.D., and Mutaz B. Habal, M.D., illustrates the interdisciplinary nature of the diagnosis and treatment involved in craniofacial surgery.
Gift of Joseph E. Murray, M.D. to the National Archives of Plastic Surgery in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 2001.
Written by Joseph E. Murray M.D., John B. Mulliken, M.D., Leonard B. Kaben, M.D., and Anthony D. Holmes, M.B.B.S., this is the introduction to a report that discusses the lessons learned by surgeons through twenty years experience in the repair of craniofacial defects.
Gift of Joseph E. Murray, M.D. to the National Archives of Plastic Surgery in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 2001.
Born in Brittany, in 1917, Paul Tessier presented the first paper on craniofacial surgery in 1967. Dr. Tessier worked with Dr. Murray at the Craniofacial Clinic in the 1970s and 1980s.
Gift of Joseph E. Murray, M.D. to the National Archives of Plastic Surgery in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 2001.
Gift of Joseph E. Murray, M.D. to the National Archives of Plastic Surgery in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 2001.
An example of a dental cast illustrating a cleft palate, 1984.
Gift of Joseph E. Murray, M.D. to the National Archives of Plastic Surgery in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 2001.
In 1967, Dr. Murray established Boston's first residency in plastic surgery at The Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. This pamphlet was used as a basic procedure manual for residents.
Gift of Joseph E. Murray, M.D. to the National Archives of Plastic Surgery in the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, 2001.