Medical School Aides Succeed in 101-Day Kidney Transplantation

Doctors and scientists of the Harvard Medical School are now in the more advanced stages of experimentation on kidney transplantation, financed by a recent $15,000 research grant from the Lasden Foundation of Yonkers, New York.

Harvard, with its affiliated Peter Bent Brigham Hospital of Boston, has pioneered in this field of research. In a record experiment, a human kidney was transplanted and remained active for 101 days.

The researchers have been following a dual procedure, compiling results simultaneously in the laboratory and the clinic. Animal specimens are being used in the laboratory with varying results. In the clinic, eight transplantations have been performed on humans. No single attempt has been entirely successful, but the correlation of the various tests has given valuable clues to the nature of the eventual solution.

Members of the Medical School Faculty working on this project include Dr. David M. Hume '40, Instructor in Surgery, Dr. Cutting B. Favour, Associate in Medicine, Dr. John M. Weller, Instructor in Medicine, Dr. John P. Merrill, Associate in Medicine, Dr. Benjamin F. Miller, Lecturer in Medicine, and Dr. George W. Thorn, Hersey Professor of Theory and Practice of Medicine.