About

Clyde F. Barker, MD, is a faculty member in the Department of Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania's Perelman School of Medicine. He is associated with the Division of Transplant and Vascular Surgery at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania. His educational background includes a B.A. from Cornell University in 1954 and an M.D. from Cornell University in 1958. His professional focus involves surgical research and clinical practice related to transplantation and vascular surgery, with notable contributions documented in various publications. His contact information includes an office at 3400 Spruce Street, Philadelphia, PA, and an email address clyde.barker@uphs.upenn.edu.

Research topics

• Medicine
• Immunology
• Biology
• Surgery
• Internal medicine

Selected publications

• Tom Starzl and the Evolution of Transplantation

  Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge · 2026-03-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Thomas Eakins and His Medical Clinics

  Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge · 2026-03-01 · 1 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Many Faces of Benjamin Rush

  Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge · 2026-03-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• The Shared Trail of Organ, Limb, and Face Transplantation

  Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society held at Philadelphia for promoting useful knowledge · 2026-03-01

  articleSenior author

  TRANSPLANTATION OF A LIMB or face has been a logical extension of organ transplantation. The feasibility of transplanting organ allografts2 was demonstrated for the first time with kidneys in 1959. During the preceding 15 years, it had been established that rejection of skin allografts in experimental animals (1) and humans (2) is an immunologic response and that analogous events cause destruction of canine (3,4) and human kidney allografts. The only exception was with identical twins, between whom tissues and organs (isografts) can be freely exchanged (5,6).Before 1959, most of the human kidney allografts were transplanted to non-immunosuppressed recipients.3 The kidneys were obtained from recently deceased persons (e.g., in France after guillotine execution) or in the United States from surgical patients from whom a kidney was removed for a variety of non-transplant objectives (7-12), and from a mother in France who was the first recorded living organ donor (for her son) (13).No matter what the source of the renal allografts, the pace of the rejection was much the same and was complete in a few days or weeks. Efforts up to 1959 to prevent the rejection of renal allografts by weakening the recipient immune response with irradiation or drug immunosuppression had failed to produce kidney allograft survival in humans or in any animal model for as long as 30 days. Consequently, the successful kidney alloengraftments accomplished in humans between 1959 and 1963 (table 1) were surprising to almost all immunologists, physicians, and surgeons.In retrospect, however, there had been clues suggesting the theoretical possibility of organ alloengraftment, beginning with observations in cattle. In these bovine fraternal twins, the placentas are fused during uterine gestation, allowing fetal cross-circulation (fig. 1, inset I).4 In 1945, it had been reported by Ray Owen (APS 1984) that each member of a freemartin pair contained the other's blood cells after birth and throughout life (persistent blood chimerism) (14).The blood chimerism subsequently was incorporated by the Australian Macfarlane Burnet (APS I960) in the clonal selection theory of immunity that became the cornerstone of modern immunology (15). As part of his hypothesis, Burnet predicted that the cattle twins would be able by virtue of their chimerism to freely exchange all tissues. In 1952, Peter Medawar (APS 1961) and his English team validated this prediction with skin graft experiments in both same-sex and cross-sex cattle twin pairs (16), and then proceeded in 1953 to demonstrate that similar non-responsiveness (acquired immunologic tolerance) could be deliberately produced in mice.In the mouse experiments, Medawar and his associates, Rupert Billingham and Leslie Brent, transplanted allogeneic spleen cells from adult donors into immunologically immature animals (17,18) (fig. 2, outer rim). This was the forerunner model of bone marrow cell transplantation for humans afflicted with immune deficiency diseases (fig.l, inset 2a). In a second model, Main and Prehn (19) in Bethesda reduced the immune responsiveness of adult recipient mice by total body irradiation prior to the transplantation of bone marrow cells (fig. 2, center). This model ultimately evolved into clinical bone marrow transplantation for a wide range of hematologic and other indications (fig. 1, inset 2b). Under both circumstances depicted in figure 2, the mouse recipients engrafted with donor leukocytes could accept other tissues from the same donor. Thus, the strong association of acquired donor-specific tolerance with donor leukocyte chimerism was formally established.A three-step strategy derived from the mouse experiments that could permit organ engraftment in patients was promptly envisioned by surgeons (20,21). It consisted of weakening the recipient's immune system with total body irradiation as had been done by Main and Prehn, infusion of donor lymphopoietic (e. …

  PublisherDOI

• Reciprocal Learning Between Military and Civilian Surgeons

  Annals of Surgery · 2019-10-09 · 9 citations

  reviewOpen access

  Numerous surgical advances have resulted from exchanges between military and civilian surgeons. As part of the U.S. National Library of Medicine Michael E. DeBakey Fellowship in the History of Medicine, we conducted archival research to shed light on the lessons that civilian surgery has learned from the military system and vice-versa. Several historical case studies highlight the need for immersive programs where surgeons from the military and civilian sectors can gain exposure to the techniques, expertise, and institutional knowledge the other domain provides. Our findings demonstrate the benefits and promise of structured programs to promote reciprocal learning between military and civilian surgery.

  PublisherDOI

• In memoriam: Thomas E. Starzl, MD, PhD, FACS, organ transplantation pioneer.

  PubMed · 2017-06-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• Foreword

  University of Pittsburgh Press eBooks · 2017-09-07

  book-chapter1st authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

• Durable Remissions with Control of Cytokine Release Syndrome (CRS) Using T Cells Expressing CD19 Targeted Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) CTL019 to Treat Relapsed/Refractory (R/R) Acute Lymphoid Leukemia (ALL)

  Cytotherapy · 2016-05-25

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Victor A. McKusick

  Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society: Held at Philadelphia for Promoting Useful Knowledge · 2016-01-01

  article1st authorCorresponding
  Publisher

• History and Current Status of Cardiovascular Surgery at the University of Pennsylvania

  Seminars in Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery · 2015-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleSenior author
  PublisherDOI

Recent grants

• NIH Grant R01DK026007

  NIH · $1.6M · 1999

• NIH Grant R37DK026007

  NIH · $2.6M · 1995

• NIH Grant R01AM026007

  NIH · $256k · 1987

• NIH Grant T32CA009619

  NIH · $2.3M · 2004

Frequent coauthors

• Ali Naji

  Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania

  170 shared

• James F. Markmann

  Massachusetts General Hospital

  71 shared

• Leonard J. Perloff

  Philadelphia University

  43 shared

• Ronald M. Fairman

  United States Food and Drug Administration

  37 shared

• Michael A. Golden

  University of Minnesota

  33 shared

• Jeffrey P. Carpenter

  33 shared

• Robert Grossman

  Naples Community Hospital Healthcare System

  31 shared

• Omaida C. Velázquez

  30 shared

Labs

• Clyde F. Barker LabPI