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The first human heart transplant in the world was performed at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa, on December 3, 1967.  After training over a decade in heart surgery, Christiaan Barnard, MD, PhD, Head of the Department of Experimental Surgery, accepted the risk of transplantation and successfully performed the operation. Many believe that Dr. Barnard’s courage to perform the human heart transplant, while others in the field hesitated, was his greatest contribution.

To commemorate this cross-disciplinary feat of “courage and innovation,” Groote Schuur Hospital and the University of Cape Town are hosting a 3-day program celebrating the “50th Anniversary of the 1st Heart Transplant.” The program is supported by scientific host societies across the world.

McGowan Institute for Regenerative Medicine faculty member David Vorp, PhD, Associate Dean for Research and John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering, will present on December 4, 2017.  His session, hosted by the International Society for Applied Cardiovascular Biology (ISACB), is themed “ISACB 30 YEARS OLD: The Era of Repair, Replacement, and Regeneration.”

Dr. Vorp and John Curci, MD, Associate Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will chair a morning session, “Aneurysmal Degeneration: The Interaction of Nature and Nurture,” and Dr. Vorp will also present a lecture on “Aortic Aneurysm Biomechanics.”

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University of Pittsburgh Swanson School of Engineering News Release