Alexis Carrel

Alexis Carrel (1873-1944), French surgeon and Nobel laureate, known for his research on keeping animal organs alive outside the body. Born in Lyon and educated at the University of Lyon, Carrel came to the United States in 1905 and, except for service in the French army during World War I, remained in the U.S. until 1939. He worked at the Rockefeller Institute for Medical Research (now Rockefeller University) in New York City. He was awarded the 1912 Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine for his development in 1902 of a technique for suturing blood vessels. In the early 1930s, he and the American aviator Charles Lindbergh invented a mechanical heart capable of passing vital fluids through excised organs. Various animal tissues and organs were kept alive for many years in this fashion. After his return to France in 1939, Carrel worked during World War II for the pro-German French government at Vichy. He wrote Man the Unknown (1935), expounding his elitist philosophy, and collaborated with Lindbergh on The Culture of Organs (1938).