Which surgeon led the first successful long-term human kidney transplant in 1954?

Joseph Murray led the first successful long-term human kidney transplant in 1954.

The operation took place at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital in Boston on December 23, 1954. Murray and his team transplanted a kidney from Ronald Herrick into his identical twin, Richard Herrick. Because identical twins have nearly matching genetic tissue markers, the recipient’s immune system did not reject the organ.

Earlier kidney transplants had generally failed because rejection damaged the transplanted organ. The 1954 procedure showed that transplantation could succeed when biological compatibility was exceptionally close. It also helped establish surgical techniques later used with unrelated donors and immune-suppressing medicines.

Murray shared the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for discoveries concerning organ and cell transplantation. The operation is sometimes confused with Christiaan Barnard’s first human heart transplant, which occurred in 1967.