Health & biology · 1954

Organ transplant

Joseph Murray transplanted a kidney between identical twins, and the recipient lived eight years.

The 1954 Boston operation avoided rejection by using a genetically identical donor. Immunosuppressants such as ciclosporin, approved in 1983, later made unrelated transplants routine, now well over 150,000 a year worldwide.

See it in the living treeWikipedia