1873-1944

French Physician and Surgeon

Alexis Carrel is recognized for making advances in surgery and promoting interest in organ transplants. He received the 1912 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine for his development of a technique to sew blood vessels together end-to-end.

Born in Ste-Foy-les-Lyon, France, on June 28, 1873, he was the son of a silk merchant. He was interested in many subjects and received two degrees before getting his medical degree from the University of Lyons in 1900. In 1894, while in Lyons, the French president was stabbed and bled to death because there were then no procedures for repairing blood vessels. The death had a profound effect on Carrel, who sought to find ways to sew blood vessels. Using a very fine silk thread and needle, he practiced on paper to perfect the technique. He then turned to ways of keeping cells around the area alive and well...