With the advent of organ transplantation, it became clear that surgical techniques were far ahead of immunological control and protection of the body. Live organs could be transplanted from one body to another, but the drugs necessary to prevent rejection of the foreign tissue debilitated the patient's entire immune system. Frequently patients could not survive these severe infections, and mortality rates for transplantation were discouragingly high.

The discovery of cyclosporin brought about a major shift in the success of transplantation. Cyclosporin is an immunosuppressant whose action specifically inhibits graft rejection while allowing the bulk of the immune system to function normally and fight general infection. Jean-François Borel (1934-), a microbiologist working for Sandoz Laboratories in Switzerland, discovered cyclosporin in 1969 when he was vacationing in Norway. Sandoz employees were encouraged to pick up samples of naturally occurring organisms for analysis in the laboratory. When Borel visited Hardanger...