John P. Merrill John P. Merrill John Putnam Merrill (March 10, 1917 – April 14, 1984) was an American physician and medical researcher. He led the team which performed the world's first successful kidney transplant. He generally credited as the "father of nephrology" or "the founder of nephrology," which is the scientific study of the kidney and its diseases. Merrill was born in 1917 in Hartford, Connecticut. After graduating from Dartmouth College in 1938, he attended the Harvard Medical School. He graduated in 1942; and he was an intern at the Peter Bent Brigham Hospital. During World War II, he served for four
Circumventricular organs Circumventricular organs Circumventricular organs (CVOs) are structures in the brain characterized by their extensive and highly permeable microvasculature, unlike those in the rest of the brain where there exists a blood brain barrier (BBB). The term "circumventricular organs" was originally proposed in 1958 by Austrian anatomist Helmut Hofer, in recognition of the distribution of the structures around the ventricular system of the brain. The circumventricular organs are midline structures around the third and fourth ventricles that are in contact with blood and cerebrospinal fluid, and allow for the linkage between the central nervous system and peripheral blood. Additionally, they are