Dr. David Vorp to Present at International Meeting Celebrating 50 Years of Heart Transplantation

PITTSBURGH (November 9, 2017) - The first human heart transplant in the world was performed at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, South Africa on December 3, 1967. Professor Christiaan Barnard, Head of Cardiothoracic Surgery, after training over a decade in heart surgery, accepted the risk of transplantation and successfully performed the operation. Many believe that 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.

David A. Vorp, Associate Dean for Research and John A. Swanson Professor of Bioengineering, was invited to 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, Associate Professor of Surgery at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, will also chair a morning session, “Aneurysmal degeneration: The interaction of Nature and Nurture,” and Dr. Vorp will also present a lecture on “Aortic Aneurysm Biomechanics.”

For more information about the program: https://1sthtx.com/index.php.