JCI's Conversations with Giants in Medicine: Thomas Starzl
Channel: Journal of Clinical Investigation
Date: 2012-12-03

Today in the United States, more than 6,000 people a year receive a liver transplant, and since liver transplants have begun, over 200,000 patients have received this therapy. They survive today due to the efforts of a legendary scientist and surgeon: Thomas Starzl of the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center. He performed the first successful liver transplant in 1967 and refined the use of immunosuppressive drugs such that patients could tolerate their grafts -- some for decades. With Starzl's efforts over the last 50 years, thousands of patients with end-stage liver disease have been able to live long and active lives.