Alexis Carrel

Born around June 28, 1873, Alexis Carrel, the son of a silk merchant, earned his M.D. from the University of Lyon in 1900. He developed exceptional surgical dexterity through extensive anatomical studies, dissection, and by meticulously practicing fine suturing on paper. After facing professional challenges at Lyon, he briefly considered a career change in Canada in 1904 before returning to scientific pursuits at the Hull Physiological Laboratory in Chicago. There, he gained recognition for developing a novel method of suturing arteries and for demonstrating thyroid functioning through experimental transplantation. Carrel joined the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research in New York in 1906, becoming a full member in 1912, the same year he was awarded the Nobel Prize for his groundbreaking achievements in blood vessel suturing and organ transplantation. In 1913, Carrel married Anne de la Motte. At the outbreak of World War I, he joined the French Army, earning the Legion of Honor and achieving the rank of major. During his military service, he collaborated with a chemist to perfect the Carrel-Dakin antiseptic solution for treating infected wounds. Following his honorable discharge in 1919, he returned to the Rockefeller Institute, where he advanced new techniques for cultivating tissues and organs outside the living body. His later accolades included the Nordhoff-Jung Cancer Prize in 1931 and the Newman Foundation Award in 1937. Notably, he collaborated with aviator and bio-mechanic Charles Lindbergh on the design of a perfusion pump, or artificial heart, to sustain organs in vitro, a partnership detailed in their 1938 work "Culture of Organs." Carrel also authored "Man, the Unknown" in 1935. He retired from the Rockefeller Institute in June 1939 as Member Emeritus. Shortly thereafter, he undertook a special mission for the French government to study human problems, a post he held until France's liberation. Though accused of collaboration during World War II, he was officially cleared of all charges by the DeGaulle Government two weeks before his death on November 5, 1944, in France.