Thomas, E. Donnall

Thomas, E. (Edward) Donnall (1920–  ) surgeon, oncologist; born in Mart, Texas. He was a practicing hematologist and researcher at several northeastern hospitals before joining Columbia University (1956–63); he then moved to the University of Washington (1963). He began his pioneering studies of bone marrow transplants for treatment of human leukemia in the 1950s. He performed the first successful brother-sister bone marrow transplant in 1970, after persevering with his research on histocompatibility typing and use of immunosuppressant drugs. He shared the 1990 Nobel Prize in medicine with kidney transplant innovator Joseph Murray.