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Heart transplant pioneer DeBakey honored World-renowned cardiovascular surgeon, Michael DeBakey, M.D., visited the Medical University June 20, and was honored as a Lindbergh-Carrel Prize Laureate. He also presented  a lecture to students and faculty. Vladimir Mironov, M.D., Ph.D., a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Cell Biology and Anatomy, organized several Charles A. Lindbergh symposiums at MUSC in the spring to honor pioneers in perfusion and tissue bioengineering. The series celebrated the 100th birthday of Lindbergh, the co-inventor of an “artificial heart,” the first of its kind designed to pump essential nutrients and oxygen through living human tissue.  Lindbergh, who is better  known for his trans-Atlantic solo flight from New York to Paris, developed the device with French-born surgeon and biologist Alexis Carrel. Carrel was known for his research in keeping organs alive outside the body.  Lindbergh’s interest in this  stemmed from the experience of his wife’s sister, Elisabeth Morrow, who died of heart disease. At that time in the early 1930s, medical technology could not provide an artificial heart pump that would substitute for a heart during surgery. After Elisabeth’s death, Lindbergh and Alexis Carrel developed the first heart pump. The prototype served as the foundation for future development of cardiovascular surgery that now saves many lives. Mironov said his goal in organizing the symposium and commissioning the prize commemorating Charles A. Lindbergh’s heart pump is to bring national attention to biomedical scientists who work on the tissue level.