Michael Zinner, MD, Chairman
| Welcome to the Department’s Research page. Since its inception, the leadership of this Department has been committed to investigation and innovation in the management of surgical illness. The history of surgical research in the United States itself began, in part, with the appointment of the Department’s first Chairman, Harvey Cushing, who established the Surgical Research Laboratories at the Harvard Medical School on the model of the Hunterian laboratory that he had previously directed at the Johns Hopkins Hospital. |
Dr. Cushing emphasized meticulous observation and laboratory study of operative techniques as well as surgical diseases. His emphasis on investigation and innovation in well-equipped and university-based laboratories led his student and successor, Elliott Carr Cutler, to develop innovative approaches to surgery for diseases affecting the mitral valve. Dr. Cutler’s successor, Dr. Francis D. Moore, was a pioneer in the use of isotopes to study body fluids and metabolism. Dr. Moore was an influential and articulate spokesman for the role of the surgeon in basic science and was one of a handful of surgeons to be featured on the cover of TIME magazine. Dr. Moore’s successor, Dr. John Mannick, was—and remains—one of the longest continuously NIH-funded investigators in surgical research, providing seminal contributions in transplantation immunology and the role of the intrinsic immune system in burns and other forms of acute injury.  Other historic contributions from this Department’s laboratory efforts have included:
Dr. Carl Walter’s development of innovative blood banking practices and component separation in the crucial period around World War II.
Dr. David Hume’s anastomosis of an extra-corporeal kidney to the brachial vessels in a patient with renal failure, with short term production of urine by the implanted kidney. Dr. Joseph Murray’s historic kidney transplant between identical twins, with long term survival of the transplant recipient. For this achievement, as well as major contributions in the field of transplant immunology, Dr. Murray shared the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1990. Dr. Nicholas Tilney’s introduction in this country of cyclosporin A for clinical use in immunosuppression of kidney transplants and his longstanding NIH-supported work in acute and chronic rejection. Dr. Douglas Wilmore’s introduction of the use of glutamine and growth hormone as adjuncts in management of patients with severe catabolic stress. The Department of Surgery welcomes your interest in our Research Activities. We are particularly interested in helping medical students, surgical trainees and young investigators to establish mentoring relationships with our faculty. I would encourage you to contact any of the investigators or program directors listed on our website. Sincerely, Michael J. Zinner | |
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