Michael Woodruff
Encyclopedia
Sir Michael Francis Addison Woodruff, FRS, FRCS (3 April 1911 – 10 March 2001) was an English
surgeon
and scientist
principally remembered for his research into organ transplant
ation. Though born in London
, Woodruff spent his youth in Australia
, where he earned degrees in electrical engineering
and medicine
. Having completed his studies shortly after the outbreak of World War II
, he joined the Australian Army Medical Corps, but was soon captured by Japanese
forces and imprisoned in the Changi Prison Camp
. While there, he devised an ingenious method of extracting nutrient
s from agricultural wastes to prevent malnutrition
among his fellow POWs
.
At the conclusion of the war, Woodruff returned to England and began a long career as an academic surgeon, mixing clinical work and research. Woodruff principally studied transplant rejection
and immunosuppression
. His work in these areas of transplantation biology, led Woodruff to perform the first kidney transplant in the United Kingdom
, on 30 October 1960. For this and his other scientific contributions, Woodruff was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1968 and made a Knight Bachelor
in 1969. Although retiring from surgical work in 1976, he remained an active figure in the scientific community, researching cancer
and serving on the boards of various medical and scientific organizations. He died on 10 March 2001, at the age of 89.
, London
, England
. In 1913, his father, Harold Woodruff, a professor of veterinary medicine
at the Royal Veterinary College
in London, moved the family to Australia
so he could take up the post of Professor of Veterinary Pathology and Director of the Veterinary Institute at the University of Melbourne. The elder Woodruff later became the Professor of Bacteriology. The family's new life in Australia was interrupted by World War I
, which prompted Harold to enlist in the armed services. He became an officer in the Australian Army Veterinary Corps and was sent to Egypt
.
The remainder of the Woodruffs returned to London, and the two boys lived with their mother and paternal grandmother in the latter's residence in Finchley
. However, Michael and his brother went back to Australia
in 1917 after their mother, Margaret, died of a staphylococcal septicaemia. The two then spent a short time under the care of an aunt before being rejoined by their father in 1917.
In 1919, Harold remarried and his new wife raised the children from his first marriage. The two boys did their early schooling at Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne. From then on he spent all of his youth in Australia except for a year in Europe in 1924 when his father went on sabbatical leave at Paris
's Pasteur Institute
. During this time, Woodruff and his brother boarded at Queen's College
in Taunton
, Somerset
on the south coast of England. The headmaster at the school derogatorily regarded Australians as "colonials" who were "backward" and put Woodruff in a year level one year lower than appropriate. Upon returning to Australia, Woodruff attended the private Methodist Wesley College
, where he enjoyed mathematics and rowing
.
He won a government scholarship to the University of Melbourne
and Queen's College
, a university residential college. Woodruff studied electrical engineering
and mathematics
, receiving some instruction from the influential physicist Harrie Massey
, then a tutor. Despite success in engineering, Woodruff decided that he would have weak prospects as an engineer in Australia because of the Great Depression
. He decided to take up medical studies at the end of his third year of undergraduate study, but his parents wanted him to finish his degree first. Despite his fears regarding his ability to succeed as an engineer, Woodruff placed first in his graduating class with first-class honours. He also completed two years of the maths program with first-class honours.
After graduating in 1933, he entered the medical program at the University of Melbourne. His mentors included Anatomy Professor Frederic Wood Jones
. While at the University, he passed the primary exam for the Royal College of Surgeons
in 1934, one of only four successful candidates who sat the examination in Melbourne that year. He finished the program in 1937 and received an MBBS
with honours as well as two prizes in surgery. After graduation, he studied internal medicine
for one more year, and served as a house surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital
. Woodruff then started his surgical training.
, Woodruff joined the Australian Army Medical Corps. He stayed in Melbourne until he finished his Master of Surgery
Degree in 1941. At that time, he was assigned to the Tenth Australian Army General Hospital in Malaya
as a captain
in the Medical Corps. According to Woodruff, his time in Malaya was quiet and relatively leisurely as the war in the Pacific was yet to began in earnest. However, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
changed the situation and he was posted to a casualty clearing station where he worked as an anaesthetist, before being transferred into the Singapore General Hospital. A Japanese offensive resulted in the fall of Singapore and Woodruff was taken prisoner along with thousands of other Australian and British personnel.
After being captured, Woodruff was imprisoned in the Changi Prison Camp
. In the camp, Woodruff realized that his fellow prisoners were at great risk from vitamin deficiencies
due to the poor quality of the rations they were issued by the Japanese. To help fight this threat, Woodruff asked for permission from the Japanese to allow him to take responsibility for the matter, which was granted. He devised a method for extracting important nutrients from grass
, soya beans, rice polishings, and agricultural wastes using old machinery that he found at the camp. Woodruff later published an account of his methods through the Medical Research Council
titled "Deficiency Diseases in Japanese Prison Camps". Woodruff remained a POW for three and a half years and later during this period he was sent to outlying POW camps to treat his comrades. As the prisoners were not allowed to be transferred, he had to improvise in his practise. During this time he also read Maingot's surgery textbook, as a copy was in the camp, and he later said that reading about the fact that skin allografts were rejected a fortnight after being initially accepted, had stoked his interest in doing research on the topic.
At the conclusion of World War II, Woodruff returned to Melbourne to continue his surgical training. During his studies, he served as the surgical associate to Albert Coates
. This position was unpaid, so Woodruff accepted an appointment was a part-time pathology lecturer to support himself. In January 1946, Woodruff participated in an Australian Student Christian Movement meeting, where he met Hazel Ashby, a science graduate from Adelaide
. She made a great impression on Woodruff, and he married her half a year later. The couple were research partners for the rest of their lives.
Exam. Woodruff took his new wife over with no guarantee of employment, and declined a two-year travelling fellowship to Oxford University offered by the Australian Red Cross because it required him to return home and work. Before departing, he applied for a position as a Tutor of Surgery at the University of Sheffield
, and learned en route that they had accepted his application. He took the FRCS exam in 1947 and passed—a result that, in Woodruff's view, was certainly not hindered by the fact that one of his examiners, Colonel Julian Taylor, had been with him at Changi.
laboratory where he studied transplant rejection
, a process in which the immune system
of a transplant recipient attacks the transplanted tissue. Woodruff was particularly interested in thyroid
allografts to the anterior chamber
of the eye because they did not appear to meet with rejection. Woodruff's work with the allografts gave him a solid basis to work in the developing field of transplantion and rejection. To further himself in these areas, Woodruff arranged to meet Peter Medawar
, an eminent zoologist and important pioneer in the study of rejection. The two men discussed transplantation
and rejection, beginning a lasting professional relationship. Despite his achievements at Sheffield, Woodruff was rejected upon applying for a post at the Royal Melbourne Hospital
.
where he was given a post as a senior lecturer, having not known where the Scottish city was beforehand. At Aberdeen, Woodruff was given better laboratory access under Professor Bill Wilson, and was also awarded a grant that allowed his wife to be paid for her services. He took advantage of this access and his wife's skills as a lab assistant to investigate in utero
grafts (tissue grafts performed while the recipient was still in the womb). At the time, the surgical community hypothesized that if a recipient were given in utero grafts, he would be able to receive tissue from the donor later in life without risk of rejection. Woodruff's experiments with rats
, however, produced negative results. Woodruff also commenced work on antilymphocyte serum for immunosuppression
, with little initial success.
While in Aberdeen, Woodruff also visited the United States
on a World Health Organization
(WHO) Traveling Fellowship. During the visit, he met many of the leading American surgeons, an experience that increased his own desire to continue his work and research. After returning from the US, Woodruff experimented with the effects of cortisone
and the impact of blood antigen
on rejection. As part of his blood antigen studies, Woodruff found two volunteers with identical blood antigens and arranged for them to exchange skin grafts
. When the grafts were rejected, Woodruff determined that rejection must be controlled by additional factors. In 1951 Woodruff was bestowed a Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England for his lecture The transplantation of homologous tissue and its surgical application.
In 1953, Woodruff moved to Dunedin
to take up a position as the Chair of Surgery at the University of Otago Dunedin School of Medicine
, New Zealand
's only medical school
at that time. Woodruff had earlier failed in his applications for the corresponding position at St Mary's in London and St Andrews University in Edinburgh
. While in Dunedin, Woodruff conducted research on the use of white blood cells to increase tolerance for allografts in rats. This line of research proved to be largely unsuccessful, but some of Woodruff's other projects did well. Among his more important accomplishments in the period, Woodruff established a frozen skin bank for burn
treatment. As there was no plastic surgeon in the city, Woodruff ended up being responsible for treating burns. He also worked on the phenomenon known as runt disease (graft versus host disease). Although Woodruff had been productive in four years in New Zealand, Dunedin had a population of roughly 100,000, so there were not enough people in the region to supply a clinical medical school, so he began to look for an appointment elsewhere.
In 1957, Woodruff was appointed to the Chair of Surgical Science at the University of Edinburgh
without requiring an interview. At the university, he split his time equally between his clinical and teaching responsibilities and his research. He was also allowed to appoint two assistant researchers who went on to become prominent in their own right, Donald Michie
and James Howard
. As a major part of his research, Woodruff served as the honorary director of a Research Group on Transplantation established by the Medical Research Council
.
The research group's principal investigations concerned immunological tolerance (the body's acceptance of tissues, as opposed to rejection), autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (especially in mice), and immune responses to cancer
in various animals. In his clinical role, Woodruff started a vascular surgery
program and worked with the use of immunotherapy
as a cancer treatment as well as the treatment of autoimmune haemolytic anaemia. However, his most important clinical accomplishments were in kidney transplantation
.
Most notably, he performed the first ever kidney transplant in the UK, at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
. Woodruff had been waiting for the right patient for some time, hoping to find a patient with an identical twin to act as the donor, as this would significantly reduce the risk of rejection. The patient that Woodruff eventually found was a 49-year-old man suffering from severely impaired kidney function who received one of his identical twin brother's kidneys on 30 October 1960. Both twins lived an additional six years before dying of an unrelated disease. Woodruff thought that he had to be vigilant with his first kidney transplant, as he regarded the British medical community's attitude to be conservative towards transplantation. From then until his retirement in 1976, he performed 127 kidney transplants. Also in 1960, Woodruff published The Transplantation of Tissues and Organs, a comprehensive survey of transplant biology and one of seven books he wrote. He was awarded the 1969 Lister Medal for his contributions to surgical science. The corresponding Lister Oration, given at the Royal College of Surgeons of England
, was delivered on 8 April 1970, and was titled 'Biological aspects of individuality'.
The success of Woodruff's clinical transplant programme was recognised and enhanced by funding from the Nuffield Foundation
to construct and open the Nuffield Transplant Surgery Unit at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. In 1970 an outbreak of hepatitis B struck the transplant unit, resulting in the death of several patients and four of Woodruff's employees due to fulminant
hepatic failure. Woodruff was deeply shaken by the loss and the unit was closed for a period while an investigation was carried out to develop a contingency plan to avoid such a disaster in future. The unit then resumed operations.
Woodruff retired from the University of Edinburgh in 1976 and joined the MRC Clinical and Population Cytogenetics Unit. He spent the next ten years there, engaged in cancer research with an emphasis on tumor immunology using Corynebacterium parva. During that time, Woodruff also published twenty-five papers and two books. After retiring from his cancer research, Woodruff lived quietly with his wife in Edinburgh, traveling occasionally, until his death there on 10 March 2001 at the age of 89.
in the bladder
during transplants that is still used today. Furthermore, he established a large, efficient transplant unit in Edinburgh that remains one of the world's best. Although best known for these clinical accomplishments, Woodruff's contributions to the study of rejection and tolerance induction were equally important. Among these contributions, Woodruff's work with anti-lymphocyte serum
has led to its wide use to reduce rejection symptoms in organ transplant recipients up to the current day.
These important contributions to medicine and biology were first seriously honored in 1968 when Woodruff was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. The next year, 1969, Woodruff was knighted
by the Queen, a rare accomplishment for a surgeon. Additionally, numerous medical organizations gave Woodruff honorary membership, including the American College of Surgeons
, the American Surgical Association, and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
. Woodruff also held office in several scientific organizations, serving as Vice-President of the Royal Society
and President of The Transplantation Society. Finally, Woodruff served for many years as a WHO
advisor and as a visiting professor at a number of universities.
Despite his profound influence on transplantation and what Peter Morris
called "a commanding presence in any gathering", Woodruff was not known for his ability as a lecturer as he had a rather uncertain style of presentation and had a tendency to mumble. Nevertheless Morris said that Woodruff has "a great turn of phrase and a rather wicked sense of humour". Morris concluded that "What is surprising is that he was not successful in producing many surgeons in his own mould, despite the intellectual talent that was entering surgery and especially transplantation in the 1960s. However, his influence in transplantation at all levels was enormous."
the area of intense bleeding on the nasal septum of the nose known as "Little's area" is also sometimes referred to as Woodruff's area(drmukhtar)
and became an ophthalmologist. The two younger children both did their tertiary education at Sheffield University. The second son became a civil engineer
and the daughter completed a science degree in botany
.
Woodruff and his wife were avid tennis players and had a court in their home in Edinburgh. After moving to Edinburgh, Woodruff took up sailing with the Royal Forth Yacht Club, and went on to compete in some races. He owned a boat was known to go sailing on it in the Mediterranean each summer with his wife. During his student years, Woodruff was a keen rower and field hockey
player.
Woodruff was a lover of classical music, and after taking up the organ at university and learning from A. E Floyd, the organist of St Paul's Cathedral
, he became the college organist at Queen’s College in Melbourne; he later learned to play the piano. In his spare time, Woodruff continued to pursue his love of pure mathematics
, especially number theory
. He periodically attempted to prove Fermat’s last theorem, but failed.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
surgeon
Surgeon
In medicine, a surgeon is a specialist in surgery. Surgery is a broad category of invasive medical treatment that involves the cutting of a body, whether human or animal, for a specific reason such as the removal of diseased tissue or to repair a tear or breakage...
and scientist
Scientist
A scientist in a broad sense is one engaging in a systematic activity to acquire knowledge. In a more restricted sense, a scientist is an individual who uses the scientific method. The person may be an expert in one or more areas of science. This article focuses on the more restricted use of the word...
principally remembered for his research into organ transplant
Organ transplant
Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
ation. Though born in London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, Woodruff spent his youth in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, where he earned degrees in electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
and medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....
. Having completed his studies shortly after the outbreak of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, he joined the Australian Army Medical Corps, but was soon captured by Japanese
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
forces and imprisoned in the Changi Prison Camp
Changi Prison
Changi Prison is a prison located in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore.-First prison and POW camp:...
. While there, he devised an ingenious method of extracting nutrient
Nutrient
A nutrient is a chemical that an organism needs to live and grow or a substance used in an organism's metabolism which must be taken in from its environment. They are used to build and repair tissues, regulate body processes and are converted to and used as energy...
s from agricultural wastes to prevent malnutrition
Malnutrition
Malnutrition is the condition that results from taking an unbalanced diet in which certain nutrients are lacking, in excess , or in the wrong proportions....
among his fellow POWs
Prisoner of war
A prisoner of war or enemy prisoner of war is a person, whether civilian or combatant, who is held in custody by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict...
.
At the conclusion of the war, Woodruff returned to England and began a long career as an academic surgeon, mixing clinical work and research. Woodruff principally studied transplant rejection
Transplant rejection
Transplant rejection occurs when transplanted tissue is rejected by the recipient's immune system, which destroys the transplanted tissue. Transplant rejection can be lessened by determining the molecular similitude between donor and recipient and by use of immunosuppressant drugs after...
and immunosuppression
Immunosuppression
Immunosuppression involves an act that reduces the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immuno-suppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse reaction to treatment of other...
. His work in these areas of transplantation biology, led Woodruff to perform the first kidney transplant in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
, on 30 October 1960. For this and his other scientific contributions, Woodruff was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1968 and made a Knight Bachelor
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
in 1969. Although retiring from surgical work in 1976, he remained an active figure in the scientific community, researching cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
and serving on the boards of various medical and scientific organizations. He died on 10 March 2001, at the age of 89.
Early life
Michael Woodruff was born on 3 April 1911 in Mill HillMill Hill
Mill Hill is a place in the London Borough of Barnet. It is a suburb situated 9 miles north west of Charing Cross. Mill Hill was in the historic county of Middlesex until it was absorbed by London...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. In 1913, his father, Harold Woodruff, a professor of veterinary medicine
Veterinary medicine
Veterinary Medicine is the branch of science that deals with the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of disease, disorder and injury in non-human animals...
at the Royal Veterinary College
Royal Veterinary College
The Royal Veterinary College is a veterinary school located in London, United Kingdom and a constituent college of the federal University of London. The RVC was founded in 1791 and joined the University of London in 1949...
in London, moved the family to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
so he could take up the post of Professor of Veterinary Pathology and Director of the Veterinary Institute at the University of Melbourne. The elder Woodruff later became the Professor of Bacteriology. The family's new life in Australia was interrupted by World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, which prompted Harold to enlist in the armed services. He became an officer in the Australian Army Veterinary Corps and was sent to Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
.
The remainder of the Woodruffs returned to London, and the two boys lived with their mother and paternal grandmother in the latter's residence in Finchley
Finchley
Finchley is a district in Barnet in north London, England. Finchley is on high ground, about north of Charing Cross. It formed an ancient parish in the county of Middlesex, becoming a municipal borough in 1933, and has formed part of Greater London since 1965...
. However, Michael and his brother went back to Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
in 1917 after their mother, Margaret, died of a staphylococcal septicaemia. The two then spent a short time under the care of an aunt before being rejoined by their father in 1917.
In 1919, Harold remarried and his new wife raised the children from his first marriage. The two boys did their early schooling at Trinity Grammar School in Melbourne. From then on he spent all of his youth in Australia except for a year in Europe in 1924 when his father went on sabbatical leave at Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
's Pasteur Institute
Pasteur Institute
The Pasteur Institute is a French non-profit private foundation dedicated to the study of biology, micro-organisms, diseases, and vaccines. It is named after Louis Pasteur, who made some of the greatest breakthroughs in modern medicine at the time, including pasteurization and vaccines for anthrax...
. During this time, Woodruff and his brother boarded at Queen's College
Queen's College, Taunton
Queen's College is a co-educational independent school located in Taunton, the county town of Somerset, England. It is a day/boarding school for children aged 2–18. The school incorporates Nursery, Pre-Prep, Junior and Senior schools. The current headmaster of the Senior School is Chris Alcock...
in Taunton
Taunton
Taunton is the county town of Somerset, England. The town, including its suburbs, had an estimated population of 61,400 in 2001. It is the largest town in the shire county of Somerset....
, Somerset
Somerset
The ceremonial and non-metropolitan county of Somerset in South West England borders Bristol and Gloucestershire to the north, Wiltshire to the east, Dorset to the south-east, and Devon to the south-west. It is partly bounded to the north and west by the Bristol Channel and the estuary of the...
on the south coast of England. The headmaster at the school derogatorily regarded Australians as "colonials" who were "backward" and put Woodruff in a year level one year lower than appropriate. Upon returning to Australia, Woodruff attended the private Methodist Wesley College
Wesley College, Melbourne
Wesley College, Melbourne is an independent, co-educational, Christian day school in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia. Established in 1866, the college is a school of the Uniting Church in Australia. Wesley is the largest school in Australia by enrolment, with 3,511 students and 564 full-time staff...
, where he enjoyed mathematics and rowing
Rowing (sport)
Rowing is a sport in which athletes race against each other on rivers, on lakes or on the ocean, depending upon the type of race and the discipline. The boats are propelled by the reaction forces on the oar blades as they are pushed against the water...
.
He won a government scholarship to the University of Melbourne
University of Melbourne
The University of Melbourne is a public university located in Melbourne, Victoria. Founded in 1853, it is the second oldest university in Australia and the oldest in Victoria...
and Queen's College
Queen's College (University of Melbourne)
Queen's College is a residential College affiliated with the University of Melbourne providing accommodation to 220 students who are attending the University of Melbourne, Victorian College of the Arts, RMIT University and Monash University's Victorian College of Pharmacy.In addition to the...
, a university residential college. Woodruff studied electrical engineering
Electrical engineering
Electrical engineering is a field of engineering that generally deals with the study and application of electricity, electronics and electromagnetism. The field first became an identifiable occupation in the late nineteenth century after commercialization of the electric telegraph and electrical...
and mathematics
Mathematics
Mathematics is the study of quantity, space, structure, and change. Mathematicians seek out patterns and formulate new conjectures. Mathematicians resolve the truth or falsity of conjectures by mathematical proofs, which are arguments sufficient to convince other mathematicians of their validity...
, receiving some instruction from the influential physicist Harrie Massey
Harrie Massey
Sir Harrie Stewart Wilson Massey FRS was an influential Australian mathematical physicist. He worked primarily in the fields of atomic and atmospheric physics.- Life and career :...
, then a tutor. Despite success in engineering, Woodruff decided that he would have weak prospects as an engineer in Australia because of the Great Depression
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe worldwide economic depression in the decade preceding World War II. The timing of the Great Depression varied across nations, but in most countries it started in about 1929 and lasted until the late 1930s or early 1940s...
. He decided to take up medical studies at the end of his third year of undergraduate study, but his parents wanted him to finish his degree first. Despite his fears regarding his ability to succeed as an engineer, Woodruff placed first in his graduating class with first-class honours. He also completed two years of the maths program with first-class honours.
After graduating in 1933, he entered the medical program at the University of Melbourne. His mentors included Anatomy Professor Frederic Wood Jones
Frederic Wood Jones
Frederic Wood Jones , usually referred to as Wood Jones, was a British observational naturalist, embryologist, anatomist and anthropologist, who spent considerable time in Australia....
. While at the University, he passed the primary exam for the Royal College of Surgeons
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...
in 1934, one of only four successful candidates who sat the examination in Melbourne that year. He finished the program in 1937 and received an MBBS
Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery
Bachelor of Medicine, Bachelor of Surgery, or in Latin Medicinae Baccalaureus, Baccalaureus Chirurgiae , are the two first professional degrees awarded upon graduation from medical school in medicine and surgery by universities in various countries...
with honours as well as two prizes in surgery. After graduation, he studied internal medicine
Internal medicine
Internal medicine is the medical specialty dealing with the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of adult diseases. Physicians specializing in internal medicine are called internists. They are especially skilled in the management of patients who have undifferentiated or multi-system disease processes...
for one more year, and served as a house surgeon at the Royal Melbourne Hospital
Royal Melbourne Hospital
The Royal Melbourne Hospital , located in Parkville, Victoria an inner suburb of Melbourne is one of Australia’s leading public hospitals. It is a major teaching hospital for tertiary health care with a reputation in clinical research...
. Woodruff then started his surgical training.
World War II
At the outbreak of World War IIWorld War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, Woodruff joined the Australian Army Medical Corps. He stayed in Melbourne until he finished his Master of Surgery
Master of Surgery
The Master of Surgery is an advanced qualification in surgery. It is most commonly abbreviated Ch.M. or M.S., as well as M.Ch. and M.Chir. from its Latin name, Magister Chirurgiae or the English form of Master of Surgery....
Degree in 1941. At that time, he was assigned to the Tenth Australian Army General Hospital in Malaya
British Malaya
British Malaya loosely described a set of states on the Malay Peninsula and the Island of Singapore that were brought under British control between the 18th and the 20th centuries...
as a captain
Captain (OF-2)
The army rank of captain is a commissioned officer rank historically corresponding to command of a company of soldiers. The rank is also used by some air forces and marine forces. Today a captain is typically either the commander or second-in-command of a company or artillery battery...
in the Medical Corps. According to Woodruff, his time in Malaya was quiet and relatively leisurely as the war in the Pacific was yet to began in earnest. However, after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor
Attack on Pearl Harbor
The attack on Pearl Harbor was a surprise military strike conducted by the Imperial Japanese Navy against the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, on the morning of December 7, 1941...
changed the situation and he was posted to a casualty clearing station where he worked as an anaesthetist, before being transferred into the Singapore General Hospital. A Japanese offensive resulted in the fall of Singapore and Woodruff was taken prisoner along with thousands of other Australian and British personnel.
Changi Prison
Changi Prison is a prison located in Changi in the eastern part of Singapore.-First prison and POW camp:...
. In the camp, Woodruff realized that his fellow prisoners were at great risk from vitamin deficiencies
Vitamin
A vitamin is an organic compound required as a nutrient in tiny amounts by an organism. In other words, an organic chemical compound is called a vitamin when it cannot be synthesized in sufficient quantities by an organism, and must be obtained from the diet. Thus, the term is conditional both on...
due to the poor quality of the rations they were issued by the Japanese. To help fight this threat, Woodruff asked for permission from the Japanese to allow him to take responsibility for the matter, which was granted. He devised a method for extracting important nutrients from grass
Grass
Grasses, or more technically graminoids, are monocotyledonous, usually herbaceous plants with narrow leaves growing from the base. They include the "true grasses", of the Poaceae family, as well as the sedges and the rushes . The true grasses include cereals, bamboo and the grasses of lawns ...
, soya beans, rice polishings, and agricultural wastes using old machinery that he found at the camp. Woodruff later published an account of his methods through the Medical Research Council
Medical Research Council (UK)
The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
titled "Deficiency Diseases in Japanese Prison Camps". Woodruff remained a POW for three and a half years and later during this period he was sent to outlying POW camps to treat his comrades. As the prisoners were not allowed to be transferred, he had to improvise in his practise. During this time he also read Maingot's surgery textbook, as a copy was in the camp, and he later said that reading about the fact that skin allografts were rejected a fortnight after being initially accepted, had stoked his interest in doing research on the topic.
At the conclusion of World War II, Woodruff returned to Melbourne to continue his surgical training. During his studies, he served as the surgical associate to Albert Coates
Albert Coates (surgeon)
Sir Albert Ernest Coates OBE, FRCS was an Australian surgeon and soldier. He served as a medical orderly in World War I serving on Gallipoli, and as a senior surgeon for the Australian Army Medical Corps in World War II in Malaya...
. This position was unpaid, so Woodruff accepted an appointment was a part-time pathology lecturer to support himself. In January 1946, Woodruff participated in an Australian Student Christian Movement meeting, where he met Hazel Ashby, a science graduate from Adelaide
Adelaide
Adelaide is the capital city of South Australia and the fifth-largest city in Australia. Adelaide has an estimated population of more than 1.2 million...
. She made a great impression on Woodruff, and he married her half a year later. The couple were research partners for the rest of their lives.
Early career
Soon after his marriage, Woodruff decided to travel to England in order to take the second half of the FRCSFellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons
Fellowship of the Royal College of Surgeons is a professional qualification to practise as a surgeon in the United Kingdom and Republic of Ireland...
Exam. Woodruff took his new wife over with no guarantee of employment, and declined a two-year travelling fellowship to Oxford University offered by the Australian Red Cross because it required him to return home and work. Before departing, he applied for a position as a Tutor of Surgery at the University of Sheffield
University of Sheffield
The University of Sheffield is a research university based in the city of Sheffield in South Yorkshire, England. It is one of the original 'red brick' universities and is a member of the Russell Group of leading research intensive universities...
, and learned en route that they had accepted his application. He took the FRCS exam in 1947 and passed—a result that, in Woodruff's view, was certainly not hindered by the fact that one of his examiners, Colonel Julian Taylor, had been with him at Changi.
Sheffield
After passing his exam, Woodruff entered his position at Sheffield, where he trained in emergency and elective surgery. Originally, he had planned to do surgical research, but Sheffield had no space for him in its surgical lab. Instead, Woodruff was given a place in the pathologyPathology
Pathology is the precise study and diagnosis of disease. The word pathology is from Ancient Greek , pathos, "feeling, suffering"; and , -logia, "the study of". Pathologization, to pathologize, refers to the process of defining a condition or behavior as pathological, e.g. pathological gambling....
laboratory where he studied transplant rejection
Transplant rejection
Transplant rejection occurs when transplanted tissue is rejected by the recipient's immune system, which destroys the transplanted tissue. Transplant rejection can be lessened by determining the molecular similitude between donor and recipient and by use of immunosuppressant drugs after...
, a process in which the immune system
Immune system
An immune system is a system of biological structures and processes within an organism that protects against disease by identifying and killing pathogens and tumor cells. It detects a wide variety of agents, from viruses to parasitic worms, and needs to distinguish them from the organism's own...
of a transplant recipient attacks the transplanted tissue. Woodruff was particularly interested in thyroid
Thyroid
The thyroid gland or simply, the thyroid , in vertebrate anatomy, is one of the largest endocrine glands. The thyroid gland is found in the neck, below the thyroid cartilage...
allografts to the anterior chamber
Anterior chamber
The anterior chamber is the fluid-filled space inside the eye between the iris and the cornea's innermost surface, the endothelium. Aqueous humor is the fluid that fills the anterior chamber. Hyphema and glaucoma are two main pathologies in this area. In hyphema, blood fills the anterior chamber...
of the eye because they did not appear to meet with rejection. Woodruff's work with the allografts gave him a solid basis to work in the developing field of transplantion and rejection. To further himself in these areas, Woodruff arranged to meet Peter Medawar
Peter Medawar
Sir Peter Brian Medawar OM CBE FRS was a British biologist, whose work on graft rejection and the discovery of acquired immune tolerance was fundamental to the practice of tissue and organ transplants...
, an eminent zoologist and important pioneer in the study of rejection. The two men discussed transplantation
Organ transplant
Organ transplantation is the moving of an organ from one body to another or from a donor site on the patient's own body, for the purpose of replacing the recipient's damaged or absent organ. The emerging field of regenerative medicine is allowing scientists and engineers to create organs to be...
and rejection, beginning a lasting professional relationship. Despite his achievements at Sheffield, Woodruff was rejected upon applying for a post at the Royal Melbourne Hospital
Royal Melbourne Hospital
The Royal Melbourne Hospital , located in Parkville, Victoria an inner suburb of Melbourne is one of Australia’s leading public hospitals. It is a major teaching hospital for tertiary health care with a reputation in clinical research...
.
Aberdeen
In 1948, shortly after applying for the position in Melbourne, Woodruff moved from Sheffield to the University of AberdeenUniversity of Aberdeen
The University of Aberdeen, an ancient university founded in 1495, in Aberdeen, Scotland, is a British university. It is the third oldest university in Scotland, and the fifth oldest in the United Kingdom and wider English-speaking world...
where he was given a post as a senior lecturer, having not known where the Scottish city was beforehand. At Aberdeen, Woodruff was given better laboratory access under Professor Bill Wilson, and was also awarded a grant that allowed his wife to be paid for her services. He took advantage of this access and his wife's skills as a lab assistant to investigate in utero
In utero
In utero is a Latin term literally meaning "in the womb". In biology, the phrase describes the state of an embryo or fetus. In legal contexts, the phrase is used to refer to unborn children. Under common law, unborn children are still considered to exist for property transfer purposes.-See also:*...
grafts (tissue grafts performed while the recipient was still in the womb). At the time, the surgical community hypothesized that if a recipient were given in utero grafts, he would be able to receive tissue from the donor later in life without risk of rejection. Woodruff's experiments with rats
Brown Rat
The brown rat, common rat, sewer rat, Hanover rat, Norway rat, Brown Norway rat, Norwegian rat, or wharf rat is one of the best known and most common rats....
, however, produced negative results. Woodruff also commenced work on antilymphocyte serum for immunosuppression
Immunosuppression
Immunosuppression involves an act that reduces the activation or efficacy of the immune system. Some portions of the immune system itself have immuno-suppressive effects on other parts of the immune system, and immunosuppression may occur as an adverse reaction to treatment of other...
, with little initial success.
While in Aberdeen, Woodruff also visited the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
on a World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
(WHO) Traveling Fellowship. During the visit, he met many of the leading American surgeons, an experience that increased his own desire to continue his work and research. After returning from the US, Woodruff experimented with the effects of cortisone
Cortisone
Cortisone is a steroid hormone. It is one of the main hormones released by the adrenal gland in response to stress. In chemical structure, it is a corticosteroid closely related to corticosterone. It is used to treat a variety of ailments and can be administered intravenously, orally,...
and the impact of blood antigen
Antigen
An antigen is a foreign molecule that, when introduced into the body, triggers the production of an antibody by the immune system. The immune system will then kill or neutralize the antigen that is recognized as a foreign and potentially harmful invader. These invaders can be molecules such as...
on rejection. As part of his blood antigen studies, Woodruff found two volunteers with identical blood antigens and arranged for them to exchange skin grafts
Skin grafting
Skin grafting is a type of graft surgery involving the transplantation of skin. The transplanted tissue is called a skin graft.Skin grafting is often used to treat:*Extensive wounding or trauma*Burns...
. When the grafts were rejected, Woodruff determined that rejection must be controlled by additional factors. In 1951 Woodruff was bestowed a Hunterian Professorship of the Royal College of Surgeons of England for his lecture The transplantation of homologous tissue and its surgical application.
Dunedin
Dunedin
Dunedin is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand, and the principal city of the Otago Region. It is considered to be one of the four main urban centres of New Zealand for historic, cultural, and geographic reasons. Dunedin was the largest city by territorial land area until...
to take up a position as the Chair of Surgery at the University of Otago Dunedin School of Medicine
University of Otago Dunedin School of Medicine
The Dunedin School of Medicine is one of three medical schools that make up the Faculty of Medicine at the University of Otago. All Otago University medical students who gain entry after a first year "Health Sciences" program, or who gain graduate entry spend their second and third years studying...
, New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
's only medical school
Medical school
A medical school is a tertiary educational institution—or part of such an institution—that teaches medicine. Degree programs offered at medical schools often include Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine, Bachelor/Doctor of Medicine, Doctor of Philosophy, master's degree, or other post-secondary...
at that time. Woodruff had earlier failed in his applications for the corresponding position at St Mary's in London and St Andrews University in Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
. While in Dunedin, Woodruff conducted research on the use of white blood cells to increase tolerance for allografts in rats. This line of research proved to be largely unsuccessful, but some of Woodruff's other projects did well. Among his more important accomplishments in the period, Woodruff established a frozen skin bank for burn
Burn (injury)
A burn is a type of injury to flesh caused by heat, electricity, chemicals, light, radiation or friction. Most burns affect only the skin . Rarely, deeper tissues, such as muscle, bone, and blood vessels can also be injured...
treatment. As there was no plastic surgeon in the city, Woodruff ended up being responsible for treating burns. He also worked on the phenomenon known as runt disease (graft versus host disease). Although Woodruff had been productive in four years in New Zealand, Dunedin had a population of roughly 100,000, so there were not enough people in the region to supply a clinical medical school, so he began to look for an appointment elsewhere.
Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
without requiring an interview. At the university, he split his time equally between his clinical and teaching responsibilities and his research. He was also allowed to appoint two assistant researchers who went on to become prominent in their own right, Donald Michie
Donald Michie
Donald Michie was a British researcher in artificial intelligence. During World War II, Michie worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, contributing to the effort to solve "Tunny," a German teleprinter cipher.-Early life and career:Michie was born in Rangoon, Burma...
and James Howard
James Howard
James or Jim Howard may refer to:* James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk * James Howard , English dramatist* James Howard MP , British Liberal politician, manufacturer and agriculturalist...
. As a major part of his research, Woodruff served as the honorary director of a Research Group on Transplantation established by the Medical Research Council
Medical Research Council (UK)
The Medical Research Council is a publicly-funded agency responsible for co-ordinating and funding medical research in the United Kingdom. It is one of seven Research Councils in the UK and is answerable to, although politically independent from, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills...
.
The research group's principal investigations concerned immunological tolerance (the body's acceptance of tissues, as opposed to rejection), autoimmune haemolytic anaemia (especially in mice), and immune responses to cancer
Cancer
Cancer , known medically as a malignant neoplasm, is a large group of different diseases, all involving unregulated cell growth. In cancer, cells divide and grow uncontrollably, forming malignant tumors, and invade nearby parts of the body. The cancer may also spread to more distant parts of the...
in various animals. In his clinical role, Woodruff started a vascular surgery
Vascular surgery
Vascular surgery is a specialty of surgery in which diseases of the vascular system, or arteries and veins, are managed by medical therapy, minimally-invasive catheter procedures, and surgical reconstruction. The specialty evolved from general and cardiac surgery...
program and worked with the use of immunotherapy
Immunotherapy
Immunotherapy is a medical term defined as the "treatment of disease by inducing, enhancing, or suppressing an immune response". Immunotherapies designed to elicit or amplify an immune response are classified as activation immunotherapies. While immunotherapies that reduce or suppress are...
as a cancer treatment as well as the treatment of autoimmune haemolytic anaemia. However, his most important clinical accomplishments were in kidney transplantation
Kidney transplantation
Kidney transplantation or renal transplantation is the organ transplant of a kidney into a patient with end-stage renal disease. Kidney transplantation is typically classified as deceased-donor or living-donor transplantation depending on the source of the donor organ...
.
Most notably, he performed the first ever kidney transplant in the UK, at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
Edinburgh Royal Infirmary
The Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh or RIE, sometimes mistakenly referred to as Edinburgh Royal Infirmary or ERI, was established in 1729 and is the oldest voluntary hospital in Scotland. The new buildings of 1879 were claimed to be the largest voluntary hospital in the United Kingdom, and later on...
. Woodruff had been waiting for the right patient for some time, hoping to find a patient with an identical twin to act as the donor, as this would significantly reduce the risk of rejection. The patient that Woodruff eventually found was a 49-year-old man suffering from severely impaired kidney function who received one of his identical twin brother's kidneys on 30 October 1960. Both twins lived an additional six years before dying of an unrelated disease. Woodruff thought that he had to be vigilant with his first kidney transplant, as he regarded the British medical community's attitude to be conservative towards transplantation. From then until his retirement in 1976, he performed 127 kidney transplants. Also in 1960, Woodruff published The Transplantation of Tissues and Organs, a comprehensive survey of transplant biology and one of seven books he wrote. He was awarded the 1969 Lister Medal for his contributions to surgical science. The corresponding Lister Oration, given at the Royal College of Surgeons of England
Royal College of Surgeons of England
The Royal College of Surgeons of England is an independent professional body and registered charity committed to promoting and advancing the highest standards of surgical care for patients, regulating surgery, including dentistry, in England and Wales...
, was delivered on 8 April 1970, and was titled 'Biological aspects of individuality'.
The success of Woodruff's clinical transplant programme was recognised and enhanced by funding from the Nuffield Foundation
Nuffield Foundation
The Nuffield Foundation is a British charitable trust, established in 1943 by William Morris , the founder of the Morris Motor Company. Lord Nuffield wanted to contribute to improvements in society, including the expansion of education and the alleviation of disadvantage...
to construct and open the Nuffield Transplant Surgery Unit at the Western General Hospital in Edinburgh. In 1970 an outbreak of hepatitis B struck the transplant unit, resulting in the death of several patients and four of Woodruff's employees due to fulminant
hepatic failure. Woodruff was deeply shaken by the loss and the unit was closed for a period while an investigation was carried out to develop a contingency plan to avoid such a disaster in future. The unit then resumed operations.
Woodruff retired from the University of Edinburgh in 1976 and joined the MRC Clinical and Population Cytogenetics Unit. He spent the next ten years there, engaged in cancer research with an emphasis on tumor immunology using Corynebacterium parva. During that time, Woodruff also published twenty-five papers and two books. After retiring from his cancer research, Woodruff lived quietly with his wife in Edinburgh, traveling occasionally, until his death there on 10 March 2001 at the age of 89.
Legacy
Woodruff's contributions to surgery were important and long-lasting. In addition to performing the first kidney transplant in the UK, he devised a method of implanting a transplanted ureterUreter
In human anatomy, the ureters are muscular tubes that propel urine from the kidneys to the urinary bladder. In the adult, the ureters are usually long and ~3-4 mm in diameter....
in the bladder
Urinary bladder
The urinary bladder is the organ that collects urine excreted by the kidneys before disposal by urination. A hollow muscular, and distensible organ, the bladder sits on the pelvic floor...
during transplants that is still used today. Furthermore, he established a large, efficient transplant unit in Edinburgh that remains one of the world's best. Although best known for these clinical accomplishments, Woodruff's contributions to the study of rejection and tolerance induction were equally important. Among these contributions, Woodruff's work with anti-lymphocyte serum
Anti-lymphocyte globulin
Anti-lymphocyte globulin is an infusion of horse-derived or more commonly rabbit-derived antibodies against human T cells which is used in the treatment of acute rejection in organ transplantation, especially in kidney transplants. It was developed at the University of Minnesota by Dr...
has led to its wide use to reduce rejection symptoms in organ transplant recipients up to the current day.
These important contributions to medicine and biology were first seriously honored in 1968 when Woodruff was elected to be a Fellow of the Royal Society. The next year, 1969, Woodruff was knighted
Knight Bachelor
The rank of Knight Bachelor is a part of the British honours system. It is the most basic rank of a man who has been knighted by the monarch but not as a member of one of the organised Orders of Chivalry...
by the Queen, a rare accomplishment for a surgeon. Additionally, numerous medical organizations gave Woodruff honorary membership, including the American College of Surgeons
American College of Surgeons
The American College of Surgeons is an educational association of surgeons created in 1913 to improve the quality of care for the surgical patient by setting high standards for surgical education and practice.-Membership:...
, the American Surgical Association, and the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh
The Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh was established in the 17th century. While the RCPE is based in Edinburgh, it is by no means just a Scottish professional body - more than half of its 7,700 Fellows, Members, Associates and Affiliates live and practice medicine outside Scotland, in 86...
. Woodruff also held office in several scientific organizations, serving as Vice-President of the Royal Society
Royal Society
The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, known simply as the Royal Society, is a learned society for science, and is possibly the oldest such society in existence. Founded in November 1660, it was granted a Royal Charter by King Charles II as the "Royal Society of London"...
and President of The Transplantation Society. Finally, Woodruff served for many years as a WHO
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...
advisor and as a visiting professor at a number of universities.
Despite his profound influence on transplantation and what Peter Morris
Peter Morris
Peter Morris may refer to:*Peter Morris , English football player and manager*Peter Morris , author of Guardians *Peter Morris , Australian politician...
called "a commanding presence in any gathering", Woodruff was not known for his ability as a lecturer as he had a rather uncertain style of presentation and had a tendency to mumble. Nevertheless Morris said that Woodruff has "a great turn of phrase and a rather wicked sense of humour". Morris concluded that "What is surprising is that he was not successful in producing many surgeons in his own mould, despite the intellectual talent that was entering surgery and especially transplantation in the 1960s. However, his influence in transplantation at all levels was enormous."
the area of intense bleeding on the nasal septum of the nose known as "Little's area" is also sometimes referred to as Woodruff's area(drmukhtar)
Publications
Woodruff's impact is also apparent in his large volume of publications. In addition to authoring over two hundred scholarly papers, Woodruff wrote seven books during his career, covering numerous aspects of medicine and surgery.- Deficiency Diseases in Japanese Prison Camps. M.R.C Special Report No. 274. H.M. Stationary Office, London 1951.
- Surgery for Dental Students. Blackwell, Oxford. (Fourth Ed., 1984 with H.E. Berry) 1954.
- The Transplantation of Tissues and Organs. Charles C. Thomas. Springfield, Illinois 1960.
- The One and the Many: Edwin Stevens Lectures for the Laity. Royal Society of Medicine, London 1970.
- On Science and Surgery. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 1976.
- The Interaction of Cancer and Host: Its Therapeutic Significance. Grune Stratton, New York 1980.
- Cellular Variation and Adaptation in Cancer: Biological Basis and Therapeutic Consequences. Oxford University Press 1990.
Personal life
The Woodruffs had two sons, followed by a daughter. Their first son completed a medical degree at University College LondonUniversity College London
University College London is a public research university located in London, United Kingdom and the oldest and largest constituent college of the federal University of London...
and became an ophthalmologist. The two younger children both did their tertiary education at Sheffield University. The second son became a civil engineer
Civil engineer
A civil engineer is a person who practices civil engineering; the application of planning, designing, constructing, maintaining, and operating infrastructures while protecting the public and environmental health, as well as improving existing infrastructures that have been neglected.Originally, a...
and the daughter completed a science degree in botany
Botany
Botany, plant science, or plant biology is a branch of biology that involves the scientific study of plant life. Traditionally, botany also included the study of fungi, algae and viruses...
.
Woodruff and his wife were avid tennis players and had a court in their home in Edinburgh. After moving to Edinburgh, Woodruff took up sailing with the Royal Forth Yacht Club, and went on to compete in some races. He owned a boat was known to go sailing on it in the Mediterranean each summer with his wife. During his student years, Woodruff was a keen rower and field hockey
Field hockey
Field Hockey, or Hockey, is a team sport in which a team of players attempts to score goals by hitting, pushing or flicking a ball into an opposing team's goal using sticks...
player.
Woodruff was a lover of classical music, and after taking up the organ at university and learning from A. E Floyd, the organist of St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral
St Paul's Cathedral, London, is a Church of England cathedral and seat of the Bishop of London. Its dedication to Paul the Apostle dates back to the original church on this site, founded in AD 604. St Paul's sits at the top of Ludgate Hill, the highest point in the City of London, and is the mother...
, he became the college organist at Queen’s College in Melbourne; he later learned to play the piano. In his spare time, Woodruff continued to pursue his love of pure mathematics
Pure mathematics
Broadly speaking, pure mathematics is mathematics which studies entirely abstract concepts. From the eighteenth century onwards, this was a recognized category of mathematical activity, sometimes characterized as speculative mathematics, and at variance with the trend towards meeting the needs of...
, especially number theory
Number theory
Number theory is a branch of pure mathematics devoted primarily to the study of the integers. Number theorists study prime numbers as well...
. He periodically attempted to prove Fermat’s last theorem, but failed.